Moments Explored and Unexplored
by Montreat11
Summary: Sometimes the road home is the longest of journeys. 14th in the Moments Series. Belle's perspective on everything that happens in Storybrooke from just after she's given Gideon up, through the battle with the Black Fairy, and the exploration of her relationship with Rumple, leading up to the moment she and Rumple find Gideon again. R/R.
1. An Old Ending

She had lived through a lot in her life; in fact, she had endured more than most people face in a lifetime in only a few short years. But the feeling growing inside of her from the moment Rumpelstiltskin left the room, the moment she was left alone without her son…it was truly the worst feeling she'd ever known in her life.

For a while she sobbed into her hands, huddled there in her bed, hunched over the hallow place between her chest and knees, the place her son should have occupied.

The world around her moved. She could hear the cries of people coming and going into the room she was in, Emma shouting for Rapunzel, the fairies asking what they could get her. She gave them no answers, she couldn't respond to the hands on her shoulders or her back or the faces looking down at her. Their words were incomprehensible. Their questions weren't important, and even if they were, she had no answers. The world was overwhelming and busy and loud. It was everything a place of birth should have been and it was nothing but a reminder that she had no idea where in the world her son, her own flesh and blood, was. And she might not ever.

"Stop, just stop!"

Rapunzel's fierce words broke through the chaos around her. Beside her she felt the bed mattress shift and a body pressed next to the lump that was her own.

"Just back up and leave her alone!" Rapunzel exclaimed wrapping her arms around her. "There's nothing that you can give her that would help her right now, just give her some peace and let us know when the doctor gets here."

There was shuffling and there were words but she didn't know what that meant. All she knew was her best friend pulling her closer against her shoulder and the tears that flowed down her cheek as she ran her fingers through her hair as though she was a small child and not an adult who had just given birth.

Pain was never-ending, but her tears were not. She cried for what felt like an eternity and then, slowly, the tears began to stop. Her back let out small spasms as she fought to catch the air she'd lost. Her eyes were swollen, her cheeks felt thick, her head felt too heavy to lift from Rapunzel's shoulder. She could see. She watched Flynn in the corner who stood at the door like a sentry, turning all but one away. Killian. How he managed with a hook she didn't care to know but he brought a tray to her with some broth and water on it.

He spoke, but the words sounded as though his mouth was filled with cotton. Slow and low, unimportant. He told Rapunzel that Emma had gone back to Granny's and left him to look after her and the ladies had prepared some broth for her, since they thought she should eat something.

Everyone else sounded hazy, like she was right back in the asylum stuck in a drug-induced catatonia. But not Rapunzel. She was the only one who was coming through clear as a bell.

"Well…that's nice of you, but it's not necessary. Flynn and I will take it from here and…I don't know that we're that hungry right now."

No. She wasn't hungry. She felt herself falling into that pit where she wasn't particularly anything anymore. She wasn't hungry. She wasn't tired. She wasn't happy. She wasn't a mother. She was insignificant, meaningless. In seconds she'd become nothing again.

She appreciated the fact that Rapunzel didn't force her to eat, but she also imagined that wasn't far away. She didn't exactly feel anything right now but her mind was thinking through things logically as ever. She knew she couldn't stay this way forever, she knew she couldn't exist for months and months and months on end in this state. She would eventually have to eat, eventually have to sleep…just not now.

Killian took the tray away, he said that he'd stay until the doctor came but left the room leaving her once again in silence with Rapunzel, who didn't try to speak or ask her how she was. She just held her against her shoulder and let her be.

Time passed. She could feel it passing. She could feel the distance to her son growing by the second, she could feel the minutes that he was getting older and she wasn't there to hold him or comfort him. She knew the sound of time passing better than anyone, but it had never been as painful as it was now. The silence was only a reminder of the noise that was absent.

Jackie finally arrived close to dusk. Flynn permitted her in the room with the fairy who had helped her give birth only at Rapunzel's bidding. The two women came over to her and stared down at her pathetic form supported by Rapunzel's body. Neither said anything. Jackie offered her a sad and sympathetic smile before she let out a long sigh that she couldn't interpret.

There were a few words exchanged as she found a seat and sat down at the foot of the bed and explained that she had to take a look just to make sure the she was healing all right. She asked Rapunzel if she wouldn't mind leaving the room, but she didn't. Instead she stood up, allowed the doctor to adjust the sheets as she needed to, then stood there and held her hand as she followed through with instruction after instruction and order after order. She went through the motions. She allowed Jackie to poke and prod her. Jackie and the Fairy carried on a conversation about how the birth had progressed, purposefully not including her until she had to, she assumed.

"Well, I suspect you are a little sore?" Jackie assumed righting the bedsheets again and finally stepping away. Rapunzel was quick to take her spot next to her on the bed once more. Sore? She hadn't noticed. The pain in her heart was far greater than what she was experiencing anywhere else in her body, but now that she mentioned it she remembered trying to move and hurting too much.

She gave a small nod as she settled back into Rapunzel, absorbing the comfort she gave off as the only balm, her only reminder that all the good in the world was not gone. Suddenly she had a feeling, a thought that she hadn't had in a very long time and wished her own mother was there.

"Yes," she finally spoke in a small whisper, aware for the first time that her throat was dry and sore. "A little." Next to her Rapunzel shifted and fiddled with something on the dresser beside her.

"You're going to be for a while. You should probably take it easy here a few days and then go home and be on bed rest for a week or so."

"Here." She glanced over and found Rapunzel holding out a glass of water for her. She wasn't thirsty but she drank anyway and let the cool water soothe her sore throat.

"I want to take her home. Today, if I can," Rapunzel added as she drank.

"I understand, and she's not in bad shape, no swelling in the abdomen, probably because the dust didn't give the pregnancy time to wreak it's havoc, but she really shouldn't be going anywhere given her circumstances coupled with her condition."

"Please, she shouldn't be here, there must be something. Celeste?"

The fairy who had helped her give birth snapped to attention and she watched as she looked her over. She didn't have much of a will, but she used her eyes to plead with the girl. If there was anything to be done then she would do it. Being here, in this room, the only place she'd ever held him in her arms…she wanted to be gone from here. If she had the strength then she would have been fighting for it herself. Instead, she was just as happy to sit back and let Rapunzel do it for her.

"We have spells, but I'd need to get permission and with the Blue Fairy gone-"

She felt herself wince and her body curl into Rapunzel's again at the mention of the Blue Fairy's departure. Just thinking about the memory was like something cutting her open and watching her bleed.

"Then find the next highest ranking fairy and get the permission," Rapunzel insisted wrapping her arms tighter around her. "I'm taking her home tonight, with or without your help, but it will be a lot better for everyone if we have it."

"Sounds like we're getting into a question of magic, and I can't help with that. I have another patient back at the hospital that I have to check in on," Jackie sighed rising from her chair and moving it aside again. "Let me know where you land and I'll come by and check on you in a few days, until then…" suddenly the look on Jackie's face lost it's formality and returned to one of sadness. Though she was glued to Rapunzel and looking forward to the room being empty again, Jackie took a seat next to her on the bed, leaving her pressed for space between Jackie and Rapunzel.

"I've seen a lot of sadness, a lot of tragedy in my life. It comes with this job. The price I pay for seeing some of the most joyful times in life is seeing some of the most unpleasant, to say the least. But the women I meet…their courage never ceases to amaze me. I know it doesn't seem like much now, but things will get better, and you will learn to live again. That is something you owe not just to yourself, but your son."

She was sure she had cried all the tears that she had for a lifetime. But with her words she felt more begin to drip over her eyelashes as her grip on Rapunzel's arm tightened.

"He was beautiful," she whispered, her voice cracking.

Jackie nodded her head slowly and a small unsure smile spread over her face. "I'm sure he is. And he will be again the next time that you see him."

Jackie reached out a hand for her, but Rapunzel took it when more tears prevented her from lifting her hand or head or anything. Jackie left, taking the fairy, Celeste, with her, and Flynn followed the pair of them out so that she could cry against Rapunzel for a few more silent minutes. When he returned, he let them know that Killian had left after a positive report from the doctor and the fairies were talking amongst themselves about getting her out of this place. No sooner had he given his news did the door open up and Celeste returned carrying a glass of something purple.

"We discussed it and if it had been anyone else I don't think they would have been willing, but since it's you and you've given us so much help over the years…" she reached out to hand the glass to her but her body was moving slowly and Rapunzel grabbed it first for her.

"What is it?" Rapunzel asked for her giving it a smell.

"Old fairy magic," Celeste answered. "It'll put her to sleep for about an hour but when she wakes up, she'll be healed and can go home but…I'm sorry…it only works on the body, not the heart," she said looking down at her with sympathy.

No.

She didn't understand.

That pain was fine. The pain in her heart…it was worth having. She would rather feel it now than never know it, she would rather feel pain than know that Rumpelstiltskin had their child.

She didn't want to give up this pain she felt up for as long as she lived. If she couldn't live with her baby, then she would live with the pain. She would live.

Just not here.

With a weak hand she reached out and took the glass of purple liquid from Rapunzel. She swallowed it down in three gulps, neither smelling nor tasting it. It's magic worked fast. Rapunzel only had a second to remove it from her hand before she surrendered to the oblivion it brought her.

* * *

 **Hi! For those of you that are just checking out this fiction, welcome! For those of you who are a fan of the Moments Series, welcome back! I hope you'll enjoy this fiction. It's the 14th in the Moments Series, a series that is an attempt at an accurate portrayal of Belle's perspective during the Once Upon a Time series. This fiction features everything that happened in Storybrooke from the moment just after Belle let Gideon go in "Changlings" up to the moment that she and Rumple find him again in the cavern in "The Final Battle Part II".**

 **If you enjoy this fiction, please review! I always enjoy those wonderful gems waiting for me in my inbox, and I love writing back to thank you personally for reading! It helps me know that I'm doing a decent job! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	2. Life Isn't Fair

When she woke things had changed; she had changed. She'd been laying on her side and was suddenly aware of just how thin and stiff the mattress beneath her way. It dug into her hip bone making her uncomfortable, but it also made it easy to see that the pain and soreness she'd had in the lower half of her body was gone and her stomach felt perfectly tight again. It was as if nothing had every happened, in fact, if it weren't for the low, hollow ache that she felt in her heart, she would have thought it was all a dream.

"Belle."

Rapunzel was there, in the little atrium that connected the small infirmary to the door on the other side. She was talking to Celeste when she saw she was awake. She was gentle, coming back into the room to see her as though she was walking over pieces of glass, but she still sat down on the side of her bed so she could face her.

"You look better, a bit less pale, but…how are you feeling? Your body I mean, physically."

She was thankful that Rapunzel had put that little caveat into her statement. Otherwise, the answer would have been too depressing to mention aloud and she wasn't sure if she'd have been able to manage words.

"Better enough to leave," she answered quietly.

Rapunzel nodded, then looked over her shoulder at where Celeste stood, examining her it appeared. She seemed reluctant, but eventually she nodded and turned to leave. Rapunzel offered her a small smirk of encouragement.

"I'll have Flynn pull the car around. He went to the ship while you were sleeping and packed up some of your things. We're going to take you back to his house for a few days, give you his parents master suite so you'll have some privacy."

She nodded, not because she agreed with her, but because she didn't have the energy to argue or come up with an alternative plan to argue for. In truth, she didn't like the idea of displacing Flynn or invading his privacy, but she felt like she had very little choice. Going back to the Jolly Roger would have been ideal but it had no bathroom and she wasn't in the mood to walk to and from the dock and face all those people. Granny might have been able to find her room now that they were rehoming the people from the Land of Untold Stories, but she wasn't sure she wanted to be doted upon. She would never set foot in the pink house again, there wasn't enough room in the library, and though she could go and stay with Rapunzel's parents as they'd once offered she didn't know if she'd find privacy there or doting from her mother. Flynn's place to recover was just as good as any.

When she sat up and began to move it was evident to her that her body was better, but her soul was still hurting, throbbing really; it was almost worse than before she'd gone to sleep. Maybe the pain in her body had kept her from feeling the full effects of the loss she felt. It didn't help that has she stood her eyes automatically fell on the teddy bear in the basket that Rapunzel had initially brought her. It was still there, by her bedside and she couldn't help but reach down and inspect it. It was soft and comforting in her hands. It was something to hold, some little piece of her son even if he'd never had the opportunity to hold it as she did now. It was the same with the little onesie that was also in the basket. He'd never even gotten to wear it. She'd never gotten to dress him. Change him. Wrap him in a blanket and swaddle him. She'd never gotten to learn how to be a mother. Those were experiences she'd been robbed of and would never get back.

As she prepared to go, living seemed to happen in a blur. She clutched the small stuffed bear to her chest and Rapunzel fit her into the jacket she'd forgotten she put on this morning, and kept a protective arm around her as they walked to the car. The fairies were talking to Rapunzel, and to her, offering her advice and kind words and touches. They all seemed empty and meaningless, and she barely felt their touches. She only had two questions for them, the first came when she spotted a young fairy who looked familiar, but she couldn't quiet place until she saw the sad look in her eyes. It was Violet. It was the fairy who had sent her a message. She was young again.

"How?" she heard herself inquire as she was ushered past her.

Regina. Someone told her Regina had returned after saving her sister and worked her magic.

It made sense. Regina was trying desperately to undo all her sister was doing. She would have felt partially responsible for what had happened to the fairy. She'd been sending away her child. Regina had made history. It was just a shame it was too late for her.

She clutched the bear to her chest as Flynn pulled his car up to the steps so that she didn't have to walk far and she found the door opened by Celeste.

"Mother Superior?" was her second and final inquiry before she would disappear. But the woman only shook her head.

"We've heard nothing from her since her departure. But I promise, when we get word you'll be-"

"No!" she insisted with more power than she thought she had. "No, it's…it's best if I don't know where he's gone," she concluded sadly. Yes, the point was to protect him from Rumpelstiltskin and not her, but knowing would make no differences. She might know how many miles he was from her, but she would never know his favorite food or his favorite book or how he liked his eggs or what he threw temper tantrums over…knowing would make no difference. In fact, the fewer people who knew, the fewer people who had the ability to tell Rumpelstiltskin where he was, the better; even if that meant she'd never know.

"It's best if no one knows where he's gone but Blue," she finally muttered before sliding into the car.

Flynn smiled at her from the front seat and promised he'd get her home soon enough, but she only clutched the teddy bear in her hands tighter. She had no home. Home was where her son was. Home was where she could never be.

Outside the car, she heard Rapunzel tell Celeste that she'd talk to her in a couple of days about what she'd just said. Obviously, they disagreed about her ability to know the location of her son, but she would be immoveable. Though it hurt, she did believe that she'd done a good thing today. She wished it hadn't ended the way it had! In her heart of hearts, she wished she was still at the convent, that Rumple was by her side as they stared down at the boy together in utter amazement talking about what this new chapter would bring them.

But she couldn't have that. All she could have was the assurance that whatever destiny their child had was still intact. That he'd grow up far from a father who would love him but never enough. Far from a mother who was weak. Far from a life that was strained.

How ironic. Rumple did magic and terrible things because it felt good. She had done something good, and the outcome was that it felt terrible. She held the teddy bear tighter to her chest as Rapunzel finally got in the car and they drove back into town with the only thing she could carry with her. It was a crude piece of knowledge that she'd been told since before she could remember but never really understood until this very moment.

Life wasn't fair.

* * *

 **So we're all off to a great start, right? I know this chapter seems long and slow and uneventful. I know it looks like it's a filler chapter but the truth is that it's not and it's slowness is intentional. I didn't want to rush anything in this small section. It's only for a few chapters, but I figured that for Belle a single second probably seems like an eternity without her son. I wanted the readers to feel that too. Are these chapters so agonizingly long? Good. Because I'm sure that's what Belle felt. That being said, this doesn't last long. You've got one more chapter until things pick up with the story I know we're all waiting for.**

 **Thank you to Paintbrush123, Grace5231973, Fox24, Rumbellefan, and Theresa Martin for the reviews that you left me! I'm so happy to have all of you reading. I truly believe that you are going to enjoy this fiction even with all the drama in the beginning. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	3. One Unsettling Step After Another

Life wasn't fair, despite the workings of Flynn Rider and Rapunzel. The car ride back to his house was quiet but it was a thick silence, one that demanded words no one seemed willing to give out of fear, or, in her case, desire.

She wasn't an idiot, she knew that she was going to have to learn how to live with this, with the choice she'd been forced to make. She knew that one day she would be able to. But that day wasn't today. Today she had no interest in putting on a good face or trying to pretend that the hurt she felt didn't radiate through every last fiber of her being. Today she saw no shame in driving through the streets of Storybrooke and letting tears stream out of her eyes. She was sad. And she had every right to be.

"Hey…"

Ayana was waiting for them when they got back to Flynn's house. It was dark outside and she could only assume the girl was probably getting ready for bed or homework, judging by the sweatpants. But Ayana had none of the spunk or vigor she'd noted the first time she was here. In fact, there was barely any hint of teenage attitude as she looked her over from the door frame of the kitchen. It was the most uncertain and uncomfortable "hey" she'd ever heard.

She looked at the girl and wondered what she should do. On a normal day, she probably would have smiled, but she didn't see any chance of those muscles ever working again. She could nod. But she'd greeted her, not asked her a question. She could say hello back. Her throat burned, her tongue felt swollen…

"Hi."

It was all she could manage to muster from her lost voice.

"I uh…I made my famous chocolate chip cookies!" Ayana stated, attempting to sound happier than she had before. "Just in case you were hungry…"

She followed her gaze to the entry way and found a plate stacked full of what must have been five dozen chocolate chip cookies and reached out to take two, not because she was hungry or because she wanted a treat…it just seemed like the appropriate thing to do.

"I uh…I probably got a little carried away with how many I made, but once you start you know…"

From somewhere behind her she heard Flynn make a comment that it was fine and Rapunzel tell her it had been thoughtful before Flynn volunteered to make them some chicken for dinner. Rapunzel and Ayana agreed that it sounded great. She didn't make a sound.

Rapunzel took her upstairs after a few moments there in the hallway and ushered her into a master suite that smelled like it had just been cleaned that day. It looked lived in. Bookshelves around the room held not books but rather artifacts. Framed photos of a man and a woman and a young boy. A baseball signed by someone she couldn't make out. There were books on geography and cartography stacked to one side. And besides that folded maps, blank parchment, and other odd tools she couldn't identify.

"I know it looks used but it's not," Rapunzel explained behind her. "Flynn was cursed to live here. He had memories of being a kid and calling his parents away to come get him from a party in High School when they were in an accident. His parents died but he lived and the house was his to live in. This room was meant to inspire guilt but…Flynn's parents actually died in the Enchanted Forest years ago by the same witch who stole Ayana so…the room was just for show."

She nodded as she listened to that tale of woe. She probably should have felt something, she probably should have felt sad for his suffering, but one look at Rapunzel and the low hum of voices downstairs and she knew that his suffering had ended when the curse broke all those years ago. Hers was only just beginning.

"I think…I think I just want to rest," she managed to get out. "I'm not very hungry."

Rapunzel looked her over like she was torn. Clearly, she wanted her to come downstairs and eat but didn't want to push her any further than she already had. If Ruby was here, she would have made her eat something, Granny and Archie probably would have done the same thing, one more forcefully than the other. But after a few moments Rapunzel simply nodded.

"If that's what you want…" she showed her the closet, which was filled with clothes that Flynn had brought over from the Jolly Roger along with a few books that were on the nightstand. She opened the bathroom door and turned on the light so she could shower and then said she would poke her head in on her a little later and left her alone in the room.

Alone.

It was hard to believe that that morning even when she'd been alone, she'd still had her baby. He'd been a part of her, attached to her…and now he never would be again.

Out of sheer disgust for the way she smelled like sweat, and the reminder it represented of the birth of her son she decided a shower was in order. In the bathroom, which had that same smell of artificial freshness coupled with chemicals, she started the water, tied her hair up with a tie she found in one of the drawers, took her dress off…

And threw it in the trash.

She paused for a moment. Why had she done that? Why wasn't she reaching in to pluck it out? Wasn't she going to correct the mistake? Why wasn't it a mistake?

She didn't retrieve it from the garbage can. Though it was a perfectly good dress, the thought of washing it and wearing it again made her feel like her skin was crawling. It was as though the bad memories of the day had crept into that garment and stained it with something that a million cycles through the washing machine could never get out.

She didn't want to wear it again.

She didn't want those memories to haunt her when she looked in her closet and saw it.

It was better off in the trash…or better yet burned.

As she stepped into the shower she concluded that there was a fireplace downstairs and in the morning she would ask Rapunzel to dispose of it for her. It felt oddly symbolic.

As she scrubbed her skin raw with the soap and cloth provided for her in the shower she had a moment to think about her current mood and state of mind. She was no fool. She'd been in this place surely no less than a dozen times in her life. This was the kind of depression that she encountered when she faced a loss. The loss of Samuel, when Rumpelstiltskin had told her to leave the castle, the night at Granny's after her father had tried to remove her memories and she'd told both him and Rumple she didn't want to see them again. It was the same sadness she'd felt when her mother had died, the same sadness she liked to think she'd been faced with when Neal had died if she'd had her memories of him and been allowed to grieve as she should have. It was close to what she felt when Rumpelstiltskin died, but still not the same.

There had been no death today. A small voice at the back of her head told her that she had won! Gideon was safe. He was with the Blue Fairy! She was going to care for him, read to him, and make sure he was happy! His father would never be able to sever him from what his future held and…she hadn't even wanted to be a mother two months ago!

But she found it didn't matter anymore. In the last month that she'd been pregnant, in the Underworld, in the Red Room, or in Storybrooke she had wanted to be a mother. She had wanted to do what was best for her child. She had wanted to care for him, to read to him, to make sure he was happy. And now that chance was gone. It wasn't the death of her son she was mourning. It was the death of a dream.

There would be endless time to celebrate the victory later. For this moment, she wanted only to mourn her loss.

Out of the shower she pulled on a nightgown and slipped between the crisp sheets of the unused bed, but she had a feeling before she tried that even attempting to sleep was futile. Sleep was not something that she did well under stress or when she was sad. She only ever slept truly well when she was at peace or when Rumpelstiltskin was by her side and since she was certain neither was bound to ever happen again…

She lay there. She lay there and stared at the ceiling bathed in deep blue. Her body and the world felt slow, but no matter how much she tried she just could not get her mind to stop babbling.

Was he hot? Was he cold? Was he hungry or tired? Did he like the Blue Fairy? Where would she take him? What would his new parents be like? What would their names be? What kind of life would he know? Would Blue check in on him often? Would he have many friends? Or a few close ones? Would he marry and have children without her knowledge? Would he sleep with Her Handsome Hero by his bedside? Would his new parents read it to him when he was a child? Would he sit with his new mother, perched together in his bedroom, his head against her side and an arm slung around his body so she could properly hold the book? Would she finish and tuck him in each night with a kiss? Would she tell him he loved him? Would he love her? Would he ever feel like something was missing?

The picture she'd painted for herself was one of domestic bliss. It was everything she wanted for her child and herself and yet to imagine a blurry face in her place, even if she gave her blessing, was just as painful as letting him go the first time. She found herself sitting up in bed, hunched over, cradling an invisible space at her belly.

She couldn't do this. She couldn't sleep, not tonight, not if these were the dreams she was bound to have! And being in this place, listening to them downstairs, a family in their own way…

Out! She needed out!

Quicker than she'd moved all evening she was out of her bed. Lacey stuffed pillows between the sheets, and she moved over to the closet and threw together the first thing she saw. Quiet as a mouse she slipped out of the bedroom and down the front stairs.

She could hear them talking together as they ate in the kitchen, she wasn't surprised that she was the topic. "We'll get her to eat tomorrow and ease her back into a schedule," Rapunzel stated with a reassuring tone.

"Are you planning on force feeding her?" Flynn questioned.

"No, she'll eat Flynn. I know Belle, I know she's strong. She's going to figure her way out of this, and we'll be back at the library researching how to get that bracelet off of her and reunite her with her son in no time."

She didn't take their words to heart, merely stuck to the shadows of the house, and carefully moved away from the kitchen, to the door and-

She was almost gone when she noticed it. The basket, the one Rapunzel had brought her at the convent. It was here. She hadn't even realized that Rapunzel had taken it when they'd gone! It did look a bit pathetic, with Her Handsome Hero no longer inside of it to give weight or depth all that was left was Flynn's old onesie and the Teddy Bear. Her eyes filled with tears as it stared at her, unsure of when it had been taken from her. It was silly, she knew it was, it had been years since she'd played with toys like that, but she couldn't deny that this particular teddy bear looked sad. Like it had just lost it's best friend.

It had.

The bear was meant for Gideon but hadn't made it into the bundle when she'd sent him away. He should have been Gideon's first friend. Now he was more damage that remained.

With little idea of why, she reached forward, scooped the bear up into her arms, and quietly left the house.

* * *

 **Okay, slow start, like I warned you about, but from here on out we're moving. In the next chapter, Rumple comes back into the picture with the scene we all know so well and the story picks up. I'm sorry these chapters have felt like forever, but again, it was on purpose and for a reason. After the next chapter that reason disappears.**

 **Thank you lovely Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, and Fox24 for the reviews that you have left me! So many good questions! So many that I'm not going to answer because I don't want to spoil how things happen! Thanks for reading! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	4. Seeds of Doubt

She wasn't running away; truly, she wasn't.

But she knew that it looked like running away, she knew that sneaking out of the house after Rapunzel and Flynn had been so kind was rude and stupid given her "condition" as Jackie had called it. She knew she was acting far more like a teenager who had just been told she couldn't see her boyfriend than a full grown woman who had just delivered a baby, but no matter what this looked like it wasn't running away.

She just needed to walk.

The fresh October air was chilly and felt good against her skin. She hadn't realized how stifled she'd felt until she had nothing but open road in front of her. She wandered for what must have been hours, taking one step after another, letting her feet guide the way. Secretly she knew what she was doing and where she was going, but didn't want to admit it because deep down she knew that just her two feet were not enough to get her to the graveyard to talk to Bae. Besides, she wasn't really sure that talking to Bae would help at the moment.

Her memories of Neal had helped her a lot in the past. Those memories and the scenarios where she'd pictured herself talking to him always meant something. Either they'd solve a problem together, or they made her feel better about particular situations, but she had a feeling that wouldn't help any of this. There were no problems to solve. Gideon was gone, probably starting a new life with a new family and there was nothing to be done about that. As for making her feel better…oddly enough she didn't want to feel better. She'd done what she had to do, there was no doubt about that, but she wanted to wallow in the misery she felt at the decision. She wanted to be sad and angry because those feelings proved that none of this was a dream. Gideon was real, the threats to him were real, the love that she had for him was a real and true thing. If she couldn't have her son, then she didn't want to let the pain go.

Yes, secretly she knew she was going toward the cemetery, but she was also been aware that she'd never make it, and at some point in her stroll, the journey ahead became too much to bear and she found herself retreating in the dark to a small bench nearby. It was the park. Probably bustling with runners and children during the day but at this hour it was empty. A mist hung to the surface of the water in front of her and she realized this was the same park, the same lake that Rumpelstiltskin had disappeared into nearly a month ago when he'd gone with the others to retrieve Killian from the Underworld. From her position, if she looked close enough she could see the parking space she'd said good-bye to him in and watched and worried all at once as he'd met the others.

It had been worthless worrying.

He'd been fine because even then he'd been the Dark One. And if she had known that then…

Things would be the same. She'd already made her choice and been pregnant then. It wouldn't have made a difference if she'd found out then. He should have told her before. He should have told her when she'd gone back. Or she shouldn't have come back at all.

She didn't want to be at this place. The images that it evoked, the memories it brought back, were not good ones. But somehow she just couldn't bring herself to get up from the spot and move on.

She stared down at the bear in her hands sadly as the truth continued to weigh her down. The last time she'd been here, she'd also been pregnant. She hadn't known it, but it was the only time she'd ever had her baby close to her and not worried about his safety. A baby was supposed to bring joy into the world; maybe it was only right that hers had brought clouds of sadness and misery. That was the story of her life, wasn't it? She fell in love and only knew hurt and disappointment. She had a baby and only knew sadness and misery. Nothing ever really seemed to work out the way it should for her.

She sniffled her tears away. They were of no use to her. None. They wouldn't fix anything or bring Gideon back. She just had to-

"Belle."

Her heart didn't even stop when she heard his voice. There was no moment of surprise or shock. The bracelet made her feel like he was watching her all the time anyway, having him right by her side made very little difference.

But his whisper bothered her.

It was the same kind of whisper he used to have when she woke up in the middle of the night screaming from a nightmare, and he'd tried to coax her gently back to bed and eventually back to sleep. She was in no mood to be comforted by him tonight or ever again!

"You're looking well," he commented awkwardly after a second. "Considering-"

"You sped up my pregnancy?" she provided for him. She'd looked this well earlier in the day and would have if he'd done the right thing and kept that dust to himself, but she knew now that had been far too much to hope for. Every opportunity they had, he had to go and ruin it! Things might have been different. If he had kept the dust to himself, kept his distance for the next few months, and thrown away those shears, then things would have been different. But he was not a patient man, that was clear.

"Yeah, well…the fairies sped up my recovery," she snapped, just for the sheer joy of letting him know that his own magic wasn't eternal and could be undone. This bracelet could be undone. And one day, she'd be with her son again, but after his actions, he never would. "Which…does not excuse any of this and please don't ask me!" she insisted angrily because she already knew what was coming and his nerve disgusted her beyond belief. "Because I will not be telling you where I've sent our son."

She was weak on a number of levels but she would never be with their son. If her silence was his only protection from the monster that was his father then she'd never breath a word of him ever again to anyone and that included Rapunzel. Even if she had to take his very name with her to the grave. There was nothing he could say that would shake her on that topic.

"Belle, he's gone."

Just when she thought there was nothing he could say…those words did make her heart skip a beat. Gone. What did that mean "gone"? Gone like she'd sent him away, and he was only just beginning to realize this or…

A terrifying thought took hold of her. What if she'd failed. What if what she'd done meant nothing and Rumple had him anyway. What if this was nothing but a moment he was taking to gloat as he informed her that he had their son and his destiny in his possession…

She rose to demand he tell her exactly what he was talking about, to assure her that that wasn't the answer but…what if it wasn't. She didn't know of hardly any scenario where this would be a good warning.

"I used strands of our hair, our essence, to track him…he's not here."

Here as in Storybrooke? Of course not! She'd sent him away with Mother Superior, somewhere safer than Storybrooke. He shouldn't be here, she'd worry if he was.

"He's nowhere," Rumple commented almost immediately as if he could sense her thoughts spiraling down the logical places they were going.

She should leave. This could be all a trick. Some kind of nasty play he was using to fool her into thinking there was some kind of emergency and their son would be doomed if she didn't reveal his location, but she wouldn't do it. She didn't even know his location and wouldn't, even when Blue got back, just for this very reason. She didn't want to tell him, he was just too-

"I also know that my words mean nothing to you now…so let's start with actions."

He snapped his fingers, and instantly she felt a weight she'd become accustomed to around her wrist vanish. The cuff…it was gone! Oh, she felt her whole body sigh with the relief of freedom, but she fought to contain it as she looked her hand over. She couldn't let him see how relieved she felt. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing. And as much as every fiber of her being cried out for her to call the convent and figure out where her son was so that she could join him she knew she couldn't! This might be part of his plot. She would go after him and then he'd follow her. He might-

"There," he muttered. "This is not about control. This is about whether our son is safe."

She stood there. Unsure of which step to take. The removal of the bracelet was good but she wasn't about to believe that it wasn't some kind of ploy after centuries of manipulation. He knew how to control people and he didn't need bracelets to do it. She wasn't about to become his next fool victim and let their son pay the price for-

"Fine, don't take my word for it, I can't blame you," he rambled as he searched his pockets and pulled something out of one. She watched him carefully, ready to throw the teddy bear at his face and run away if it was that bracelet or anything malignant. But it wasn't. It was his cell phone. He held it out for her, but never took a step closer than was necessary. "Call the convent," he offered.

Call the convent? On his phone? Why because he'd bewitched it to put her in a panic? To say something that wasn't true? She should run. She should turn and walk back to Rapunzel's house while the bracelet was still off and ignore this stupid plot to get her to reveal their son's name or his location. It wasn't going to work! But…

She always thought the look he had in his eyes now was the genuine him, the truthful and honest Rumpelstiltskin. It was difficult to believe that when he'd had that look just this afternoon in the elevator and she'd thought she was safe but he'd dosed her anyway. But the look he had now, the freedom he'd granted her…

She was probably an idiot. He'd gotten into her head enough that even if she walked away she would be calling the convent the first chance she got anyway. But not with his phone. If she was going to do this, then she was going to do it as carefully as she possibly could.

She dug her own phone out of her pocket, assuring it would be in her hand so that if it was a trick she could call Rapunzel for help. She searched through the directory until the found the number for the convent and then let it ring. It was two in the morning surely everyone-

"Hello?" a breathless voice answered on the other line.

"Yeah, hello? This is…this is Belle," she sighed, catching herself before she said Mrs. Gold. "Is uh…is Mother Superior there?" she questioned, staring him down, waiting for the waver of fear in his gaze when he realized the trick wasn't going to work.

It never came. What did come through loud and clear on the other line was the relief and fear in the voice of the fairy who answered back "Oh Belle, we were just about to call you. There's been an accident and Mother Superior needs to see you. It's about your son."

She felt her mouth go dry and nearly dropped the phone from her hands as the world spun out of control.

Gideon.

He was right.

She looked up at her husband, holding his breath but not looking a bit more worried than he had since he'd arrived because he already knew the truth.

"Something happened."

* * *

 **So the thing about this chapter and a few of the past ones is that the plan with the Blue Fairy makes absolutely no sense when you really take it apart piece by piece. When I first saw 6x10 and Belle sent Gideon away with Blue she pretty much just said, "hey take him somewhere far away and oh also read this book to him", we saw the entire scene! Oddly enough I figured that meant the Blue was supposed to take him somewhere far away and raise him. But this conversation really takes away from a lot of that. Not only does Belle mention she won't tell him where she sent her son, which she shouldn't know because there was no discussion about that, but the way she talks on the phone it's as if she expected Mother Superior to be there. I didn't understand any of it and it all seemed very contradictory so I tried my hardest to make all of that work together so that it made a little bit more sense. There was a lot of silly movement in this chapter that I'll point out in the days to come. Honestly, when you break it down, it's as if they don't even pay attention to the details anymore.**

 **Thank you to Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, and Fox24 for your reviews on the last chapter! Super glad to have you along and have your trust that I'm going to fix what was left "unfixed" as one of you put it. I'll do my best! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	5. A Kidnapping in Storybrooke

Rumple was telling the truth?! Something was wrong, Gideon wasn't where he was supposed to be. Unless, of course, Mother Superior had planned it that way. But then why was she back at the convent requesting to see her because of an accident with her son? This could all be a trick but…not even Rumpelstiltskin was powerful enough to make all the pieces fall into place this perfectly. If it was a trick, something would give. It was simple enough. Go to the convent, see what had happened. If all was normal and they were confused then he was attempting to trick her but…

He looked far too worried for this to be a trick.

She'd never know if she didn't go.

"I'm coming now!" she muttered before hanging up the phone. She slid it back into her pocket and nodded at Rumple. She saw no car, nothing behind him, so she could only assume that he'd traveled by magic. She didn't like giving him that kind of power, but her desire to be at the convent quickly overruled her desire to be as far away from him as possible. "Take us to the convent," she agreed.

He nodded and stepped forward to touch her arm-

She quickly pulled away from his grasp. He didn't need to be touching her to take her anywhere with magic. Which was a good thing because she could agree to go somewhere with him but she wasn't about to ever let him touch her again.

"Just get us there," she ordered harshly.

With a defeated look on his face the Dark One took a step back, swirled his hand in the air, and she felt the familiar sensation of traveling through a cloud of magic. Her feet left the sandy, wet grass at the park and suddenly reappeared on the path leading up to the convent where the lights were still on. Through the window she could see-

"Granny?" she questioned, leaving his side and moving up the stairs. She could hear his footsteps behind her, but she ignored them, allowing him to come after her on his own.

"Granny?!" she called opening the door. The old woman was in the foyer talking with one of the fairies when she came in and noticed three of the dwarves sitting on chairs. "What are you all doing here?"

"We found Mother Superior in the Forest," Bashful answered as Sleepy slept on his shoulder.

"We were the ones who brought her to Granny when she wouldn't wake up," Doc added. "We would have all come, but Granny left Leroy at the diner to close up for her."

"Well…why bring her to Granny?"

"Because, believe it or not, I'm pretty good in a tough situation." She glanced up to find Granny striding down the hall, looking at her over the rims of her glasses. "Good, they called you, there's something you need to see."

Without a further word, Granny turned on her heel and walked off in the opposite direction. She needed no further information and immediately ran after to follow her.

"I-I don't understand, why call you? You're not a doctor."

"No, but I've taken care of more than a few fallen soldiers in my time and her wounds needed immediate attention."

"Wounds? Is she hurt bad?"

"Not anymore. The fairies healed her up as best they could when we got here, but she was beat up pretty bad when they brought her into the diner. The surface injuries are gone, but she's still weak from the loss of magic."

She was breathless as Granny led her, and Rumple she assumed from the footsteps behind her into a room that was very similar to the room she'd given birth in that afternoon. The only difference was that this room looked homier and far more lived in. Lamps added gentle lighting to the room and made if friendly, if it weren't for the image of Mother Superior through the glass, laying on a small bed, similar to the one that had been her own. She figured this must be her bedroom, but she'd seen the bunks that the fairies shared in another building. They looked nothing like this. Maybe Mother Superior got her own bedroom?

"I…I don't understand, the dwarves brought her to the diner…was she in the mines?" she questioned as they moved through the doors and closer to the fairy.

"No," Granny explained. "Mother Superior was found in the Forest."

The forest…what would she be doing there?

She nearly let out a shriek when she saw her. She'd never known the Blue Fairy in all her time to look feeble or frail, but she looked just that. Ashen white with dark circles under her eyes. Her skin looked waxy, almost unreal and her hair greasy. And Granny said she'd been even worse when she appeared in the diner? What on earth could have caused this? What would cause such injuries on a fairy? And where was Gideon?!

"What happened?! Is she going to be okay?" she questioned, hoping that she'd wake up so they could ask her-

Like an answer to a prayer, the Blue Fairy suddenly took a gulp of air and looked around the room as if trying to figure out where she was. She looked disoriented. And she certainly didn't look any better when her eyes were open than she did when they were closed. Her eyes were barely slits, and her mouth…there was hardly any color at all in her lips at all.

She loved this woman, admired her magic and her helpful nature, and she would have loved the opportunity to sit by her side and nurse her back to health the way that she deserved, but there was only one thing, one name on her own lips that mattered. Perhaps it was selfish, to push Blue so soon and only be thinking about this one thing while she was in such a state, but she needed to know where Gideon was. Now!

"Blue?" she questioned taking the woman's hand and leaning down so that she could hear her. Still, she didn't entirely seem like she knew where she was, she looked just as confused as ever. "Blue, tell us what happened to our son?" she begged, holding on to hope that maybe, just maybe this occurred after she'd sent him away, that this happened after he was safely gone and he was alright. But one look into her face and she knew it wasn't so. The Blue Fairy was clearly upset by something more than her own fragile state.

"It was dark," she answered through a voice that was thick with emotion. "And I fought as hard as I could, but she took him!"

All at once her heart stopped.

No! It couldn't be! Someone took him?! Someone, a woman, had overpowered and taken Gideon away from her? It couldn't be! Who was stronger than the Blue Fairy? Ordinarily, her first thought would be Rumpelstiltskin but she knew that it couldn't have been him or else he wouldn't have come to see her or led her to the Fairies. Who had done this to him? She had to find her son.

"Who?!" she demanded trying to hold back her tears. "Who took him?"

But the Blue Fairy turned her eyes away from her and looked upward, in the space just over her shoulder where Rumple stood still as a sentry.

"The Black Fairy," she finally answered with a whisper.

* * *

 **Dun, dun, DUN! So again, this chapter had a few things that I had to figure out. The most difficult, in my opinion, why the heck is Granny there and not someone like Dr. Whale? Really now, where is the sense in that? of course, we all know that it's because Anders is off acting in another show and can't show up to play his part, but still the choice to have Granny there with Blue and not someone to play a doctor was kind of stupid to me. I hope that I built her into this chapter alright. You will have to let me know.**

 **Big thank yous to Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, Rumbellefan, and Fox24 for your reviews on the last chapter.I am aware that when it comes to Rumple, Belle is pretty harsh in this chapter and the last. Guess what...she's going to be harsh in the next few chapters to come and I'm not going to apologize for that. My goal here is always to try and keep these characters "in character". My hope is that when you read my work you won't know where the show scenes end and my own begin and right now, this attitude she has toward him, in my opinion, is in keeping with that character. For the next ten chapters or so she is going to be an angry, scorned, and distrusting woman and in order to do my job I have to stick to that. I'm sorry. Trust me, after these chapters, once we get out of 6x11 it's all going to get so much better, but for now, my honest response to not just her own, but his attitude as well, is going to be that this is just where they are at now. But it gets better soon. Trust me. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	6. Finding Common Ground

The Black Fairy. The Black Fairy had stolen their child?!

She felt her stomach turn over as her memories of the only time she'd ever met the woman came spilling back along with one very important detail that she'd never forgotten.

She stood and looked over at Rumpelstiltskin, words were still a difficult task at the moment, but she could see that for once in his life the Blue Fairy had astounded him too. Gideon had been kidnapped by his own Grandmother; Rumpelstiltskin's mother.

"Blue," she gasped leaning back down. "You're…you're sure it was her."

The Blue Fairy nodded, her eyes still focused on Rumpelstiltskin even as she whispered "I couldn't stop her. She's too strong."

Her entire body was ridged. Every muscle, every nerve, every synapse in her brain firing off panic and fear. The last time she'd met that woman had been in the Enchanted Forest when Rumple had tried to exchange a baby for information about why he'd been given up while she took children from all around the world to her Dark Realm. He hadn't gotten her answers. But she remembered just how fearful the Blue Fairy had been when she'd sent her off to save the child. The Blue Fairy feared nothing and no one. The pair of them had been in many tight situations in the past, but nothing had ever put that look of panic on her face the way the Black Fairy did, then and now.

"Rumple!"

"Not here!" he hissed before she could breathe another word she found herself caught up in a fog once more. The change she felt beneath her feet was subtle this time, only anticipated by the familiar creak of the Pawn Shop floor boards. He'd brought them here, taken them away from the convent all because he didn't want them to know what she swore the Blue Fairy had known all along judging by the way she'd looked at Rumpelstiltskin.

"Rumple, your mother?!" she cried. "The Black Fairy, she…she took our son."

"If what the Blue Fairy says is true then it would appear so," he growled.

"Why wouldn't she tell us the truth? And who else is stronger than the Blue Fairy, there must only be a handful, and I know that one of them is…it's your mother! She said so herself in the Enchanted Forest, she's not strong enough to defeat her. Rumple…why? Why would she take our son?"

"I can't answer that."

"Can't or won't?" she demanded from across the shop, suddenly aware that she was pacing back and forth. She had known him for too long and been far too intimate with him to be ignorant, and she was tired of those kinds of answers. Answers that said one thing but always meant another. If he was holding out on her…

"Can't," he spat back. "I'm not privy to my mother's dealings."

"But you knew!" she accused. She recalled the day in the castle when he'd brought that baby home perfectly, and she knew he wasn't as ignorant as he claimed. "You knew in the Enchanted Forest that she took children, it was how you lured her there in the first place. Why does she take them Rumple?!"

"I have no answers for you, Belle," he insisted. "That was the first and last encounter with my mother, at least in my memory. You were there, you heard exactly what I heard, and that certainly wasn't an answer."

"But you must know something! She's been doing this all these years, and you must know what she wants with children, what she does to them-"

"I don't, Belle!" he hissed back, his own temper becoming unbridled. He didn't show it the way she did. She yelled, she screamed, she paced and kept her distance from him in her agitation, but just looking at him he was suave and cool as ever. The only indication he was irritated was the way he said things; the snap in his voice, and the volume, it never got higher when he was angry, only lower. "He's my son too. If I knew something I'd tell you, trust me."

"Trust you…" she scoffed. "Trust you the same way I trusted you not to use that dust."

"I didn't use the dust on you-"

"Why should I believe you?" she snapped back. He was right at the lake; his words meant nothing to her when he constantly said one thing and then did another, he hadn't earned trust from her. She'd given it to him blindly once, and over the years he'd lost all of it.

"Belle, I know I haven't given you much reason to trust me, but I've always been honest with you in everything I say and this time I'm saying 'it wasn't me.'"

"If not you, then who?" she questioned. She couldn't think of anyone in Storybrooke who hated her enough to use the dust the exact same day her husband and threatened her with it. That was damning enough.

"The Evil Queen," he muttered.

"The Evil Queen?" she snorted. The Evil Queen hadn't even been to visit her while she'd been in town if it wasn't for the stories she'd heard, and her sole sighting at the graveyard when she'd cursed Snow and David, she wouldn't even believe that she was here! She had no grudge with the Evil Queen, and she knew Regina never acted without reason. It just didn't seem plausible. "Why would she do that to me?"

"To get back at me, to make you not trust me, guilt, jealousy, what does it matter other than she did it?"

She glared at him from across the shop recalling what she'd heard about them being together. It made her sick to think about what was going on in this place with her back turned before she realized that she couldn't blame them because they were separated and she'd given him her blessing to do what he wanted with who he wanted. She supposed it was a plausible theory. But that didn't make it true. And if she were taking bets, her money would still be on Rumpelstiltskin.

"I don't believe you," she muttered. "And the truth is it doesn't matter right now because what does matter is that our son is missing. Kidnapped by one of the worst people I can think of," she realized remembering that they weren't here to fight, only to figure out what happened to their son. This was far too serious to discuss anything else at the moment. "Rumple, the Black Fairy…" she breathed in exasperation. "Your mother!"

She felt like she'd repeated it a hundred times, but she was having such a difficult time getting through the details. Their son was with one of the worst individuals he could be with at the moment, and she just so happened to be his grandmother! She couldn't imagine what would possess a person to give up their child and at the same time steal their grandchild. Why had she thought so little of this over the years? Clearly, she was a far more significant threat than she realized.

"Need I remind you that you entrusted him to that gnat!" Rumple spat back.

"After what you did to me!" she cried back, still feeling on edge! Her chest felt tight as she looked him over again and her muscles screamed at her to leave this place and find some real help, someone who wasn't going to throw accusations at her when she could throw them right back! He didn't get to judge.

"Belle," he muttered through a tightened jaw. "I swear, I did not dose you with that magic. I couldn't…"

She shook her head, about to ignore this conversation all over again. But that look, he had. The one he'd had in his eyes a few hours ago by the lake and in the elevator, the look that she'd come to know as a truthful one until today…maybe it was.

She felt the fire she'd been living with in her the pit of her stomach die down as if the tears coming to her eyes were capable of putting it out. Was it true? What he'd told her about the Evil Queen, was it just another lie, or the truth. Did he even know how to be truthful anymore?

What was true? Everything was so twisted around and confusing and this thing that they had, the love they had once shared had become warped and ugly. She didn't trust him. Not one bit, even though her gut was telling her that he was telling her the truth. But he couldn't blame her for that. He'd said so himself at the lake. The way he'd behaved these last few weeks had been atrocious. Imprisoning her, threatening her, the plans he'd made for their child…she'd only reacted to the situation that he'd presented her with! And he-

He'd reacted to the situation she'd presented him with.

It was a startling realization that she wasn't entirely prepared for, but a trail her mind went down all the same. They were not here because she'd been dosed with magic, by him or the Evil Queen or anyone else. This place was inevitable. They were here because she'd sent Gideon away with Blue. Because he had threatened to take their child. Because she had tried to run away. Because he wanted to sever the child's destiny. Because he was afraid the child couldn't love him. Because she hadn't loved him. Because he'd lied to her. Because, because, because…how they had gotten here was almost impossible to figure out.

This was a conflict, a darkness that had taken root in their relationship, their marriage since its infancy, long before Gideon had been conceived, and been building to this very minute.

What was the truth?

His words?

Her words?

Their actions?

The truth was their son was missing.

The truth was they both shared the blame for it.

She shook her head and tried to rid herself of the lump that was in her throat. "What have we done to each other? And what have we done to our son?"

His aggression and irritation seemed to dissolve almost as quickly as her own had. It was a look the common eye couldn't have ever sensed, but she did easily enough. He took strides toward her. And she let him.

"We have to work together before it's too late," he whispered with urgency.

Work together? Actually work together this time? Not like it had been in the Underworld where "working together" was nothing but a power struggle between the pair of them? And wasn't it already too late? That woman had Gideon. She had their son now. Was there anything that could be done to salvage this?

The sun was finally coming up. It was dawn. A fresh day but she felt as though there was a veil over it, cloaking it in sadness. She wasn't looking for comfort. That was a luxury she did not deserve after what she'd done and how she'd acted, but comfort was what she found in the way he placed his hands over her arms, and she didn't flinch or pull away. Instead, she felt her muscles instantly begin to ease. She wasn't aware of just how tight she'd been until he did that.

"There are realms of Dark Magic beyond even my reach," he informed her gently, "where my mother would lurk in the shadow."

Dark Magic even beyond his ability…shadows…she felt her chin tremble at the image of her baby sitting in a dark place alone, crying for her as he had when he'd first been born. She wouldn't allow that to happen. She couldn't. If she had to become a fairy herself and find that realm just to save him from that fate she would do it.

"Where has she taken him?" she questioned, unsure if she was really prepared for the answer.

"I don't know," he admitted dropping his hands from her arms and leaving her feeling cold without them. "But it's a place of immense Dark Power."

So…she'd sacrificed Gideon to a greater beast to save him from a lesser one. Maybe she was wrong, maybe they didn't share the blame for this equally. "Time runs differently there, nothing makes sense, anything's possible."

"Rumple what could happen to our son?" she cried trying to understand all that he was telling her and why. What good could come from this information? What could be done?

He sighed and placed his hands firmly back over her arms as if he was afraid she might faint at any moment.

"Anything."

* * *

 **There is a lot to unpack in this chapter, and guess what, we're going to get to all of it. Slowly and appropriately every issue that you heard in this chapter is going to be dealt with, but not necessarily right away. It's going to come one by one, in my opinion, the way it should have come about to begin with. Other little things with this scene...again, the transportation thing. I try not to use magic to get them from place to place in Storybrooke but I felt like I had little choice here. The alternative was "hey I know there is this really urgent thing we have to fight about but let's have a nice drive back to the shop first before we get into it." No.**

 **Thank you, Fox24, Paintbrush123, and Grace5231973 for the reviews that you've been leaving me and for daring to join me for the "difficult chapters" in this fiction. Trust me, the reward will be great once we're out of the mire. Now, fair warning, in the chapters to come, Belle is going to be dealing with a lot of grief and a lot of guilt over what happened to Gideon, you can see it coming toward the end of this chapter, and it's right she should deal with it. But I think the crown jewel of this chapter is that single moment of clarity just before guilt starts to shift. This isn't Belle's fault. And it isn't Rumple's fault. It's both of them. I want to make a point of this just because in the Rumbelle fandom I feel like there is a lot of separation and too many people are quick to place the blame on one or the other. That's wrong. They are both the reason they ended up here. "Because, because, because..." she thinks it herself in this chapter. Someone places the blame on Belle, there is a because that leads back to something Rumple did. Someone places the blame on Rumple, there is a because that leads back to something Belle did. On and on it goes, and this is the place that it's led to. Gideon is the innocent bystander who now bears the punishment of both parents mistakes. I beg of you to remember this, not only on this platform but elsewhere. Be kind to each other. And maybe we will come back together as one united ship as we work through this fiction. It will be satisfying for both, I promise you that. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	7. His Parents' Child

Anything.

It was hard to imagine how one little word could carry what felt like a ton of weight. Gideon was in a place that wasn't safe. A place where anything could happen to him, and it immediately set her heart racing in panic. She never wanted this. She never wanted any of this. She'd want them to raise their son, together, here in Storybrooke! And then all she'd wanted was to spare him the Shears of Destiny and now, born of that desire, she hoped Blue would find a nice family for him, someone to raise him as she would have and not…

Anything.

They had to stop "anything" at all costs. And she was willing to do anything to stop anything.

"What do we do?" she questioned. "Where do we begin? Do-do we talk to Emma? See if she can help us? She's the savior, maybe she can-"

"Emma's not here," he stated simply with a shake of his head.

"She's not?!" she questioned. "No, I was just talking to her this afternoon, she was there when I gave birth."

"The Evil Queen has sent Emma to a far off place with the help of a genie."

She felt the blood drain from her body in shock. She truly didn't even know where to begin in unpacking everything in that statement but there was one question she wanted answered more than the others.

"How do you know this?"

"I have good resources. But…I wouldn't panic, not over her anyway. She is the Savior, she always saves the day. But until then I believe we're very much so on our own."

"So what do we do? We can't just do nothing, Rumple! Can we track him somehow? Is there a way to get to this realm that the Black Fairy lives in? What can we do to save our son from her?"

"Belle, listen," he sighed. "I will die before I let that woman corrupt my son. We can solve this, we just have to-"

The door to the shop opened suddenly as if blown open by a gust of wind, and the bell rang loudly at the violent motion. They both looked at the door and she wasn't sure who she expected…but she was sure it wasn't this. It was someone, a man judging from the height, but it was difficult to tell because whoever it was wore a long flowing cloak. The hood was up.

She felt herself instinctively step away from the menacing form. She took a step closer to Rumpelstiltskin, unsure if she should run or let him take them both away. He wrapped a protective arm around her back as if he was preparing for the same thing. Slowly they watched as the hooded figure raised his arms, pulled back the hood, and-

She felt dizzy and sick to her stomach. So much so that she nearly lost her balance and stumbled at the face that she saw, for she had seen it twice today alone! It was the same face she'd once seen in the Dreamworld. It was Gideon.

"Hello Mother. Hello Father."

She felt Rumple wrap an arm tighter around her back and draw her closer and she didn't fight that instinct. Her mind was racing, her body tingling with fear and nerves and anticipation as she tried to put these clues together and figure out where to go from here. But her mind failed her. Seeing was supposed to be believing, but she was having a tough time of believing what was right in front of her. Her baby. She'd held him in her arms not twenty-four hours ago. And yet…

"No…no, no it's…it's not possible," she Rumpelstiltskin choke out beside her. "It's a trick of some kind."

"This is no trick, father," he muttered looking over at what must have been Rumple. "I assure you it's very possible. Look inside your heart, you'll know. Can't you feel it, mother?"

He turned his gaze back on her, and she struggled to come up with something to say, much less something that she should be feeling. Did she know it?

"I don't understand-"

"My mother sent me," he explained interrupting Rumple with that same look of detest she'd seen in her dream world. "The Black Fairy, she sent me to destroy the Savior so that she might be freed from her realm."

Around her back, she felt the arm Rumple had on her tighten. "This is your mother," he whispered. "Not that woman."

"And yet, I am here on her orders."

"To kill Emma Swan…so then why come here?" Rumple breathed. She could tell that he was trying to detect trickery, looking for a place for the man to slip up and reveal who he truly was. The fact that he had to continue to question him did not reassure her. Or did it.

Gideon glanced at her, and from somewhere deep inside her heart, she felt the stirrings of an urge. An urge to reach forward, to gaze upon his face, memorizing every line and wrinkle, before finally holding him in her arms once more. Maybe he had told the truth. Maybe she did know it was him.

"I wanted to see my mother," Gideon whispered. "My real mother, for the Black Fairy has never claimed to give birth to me. She only claims the credit of raising me."

Raising him. The Black Fairy had brought him up to be this man she saw before her now, dressed in black robes, with a look in his eyes like there was a dark pit there, and…he was a man who had never known love. She could see that so very clearly in his eyes.

"H-how-how is this even possible? How are you here? How are you grown?" Rumple inquired stuttering in disbelief, still trying to figure out exactly what was going on. She didn't want to believe it. She could feel that he didn't either, but what choice did they have? He was the spitting image of the boy they'd seen in the Dreamworld.

"I've lived a full twenty-eight years," he explained. "I was in a place where time moved differently, where the Black Fairy raised me." The Black Fairy. Oh, every hope she'd wished that night came crashing down as the truth came crashing in. The Black Fairy had raised their son. In a Dark Realm. What would that mean for him? She looked up at Rumpelstiltskin to try and ask the necessary questions, but his gaze was fixed firmly on the boy that every single cell in her being seemed to know was her son. Her body knew, her mind was still working out the details.

"Did she harm you?" Rumple asked when words failed her.

She held her breath as she watched her son. He was quiet. For the first time since he set foot in this shop, the cool look he had on his face began to fade. He looked shaken and startled by the question, and a twist in her stomach told her the answer before he did.

"Depends what you mean. She toughened me up."

Toughened him up? She'd sent him away to avoid one terror and had lived another…it was too much to bear.

"What did she do to you?" she demanded. She had to know. She had to know everything because everything that happened to her son was her fault! She'd done this to him.

"She did…many things trying to make me evil, but she failed. Because in all of those dark years, I always remembered you, mother. I tried to follow your example." Her example? He…he tried to be like her? He'd tried to be brave? And true? That was enough to lift her spirits from the dark place it was falling into. He wasn't like her? He was good?

"So you're not here to kill the Savior?" Rumple interrupted, reminding her of what he'd stated his mission here was. She held her breath, waiting for the answer.

"Of course I am," he corrected immediately with a small smile, leaving her completely confused. He was good, but…he wanted to destroy Emma? Couldn't he see how contradictory those two statements were? "Because once she's dead, I will gain her power, I will be the Savior."

This was all mixed up. All too confusing. Now he was talking about becoming the Savior himself. That wasn't what he'd told them ten seconds ago. He said he was here to release the Black Fairy! Now he wanted to be the Savior himself?

"Why would you want to do that?" Rumple asked shaking his head in confusion.

"There is another land in need of a Savior now, I want to finally be free from the cruel reign of the Black Fairy." Good intentions. He had good intentions but wrong methods…oh this was her son, the perfect combination of her and Rumple. But killing Emma…

"Defeating the Savior won't be as easy as you think."

She blanched at Rumple's words. He wasn't actually promoting this, was he? He had to know that they couldn't allow their son to kill Emma! If this was about stopping the Black Fairy, then they could use her to help, but they couldn't let their son murder her.

"I've seen it in a vision," Gideon argued. "I've seen her death at my hand. And when I kill Emma Swan, I will finally become a hero."

She shook her head in utter disbelief. This wasn't something that she could believe; it wasn't something she could support! She took a few steps forward, trying to find the words, trying to reach her hand out to touch her son, to convince him there had to be another way! But just before she could touch him, he bowed his head almost gracefully and wrapped a hand around himself and vanished in a cloud of black smoke.

* * *

 **Gideon's here! I know at least one of you have been looking forward to his arrival. I hope I did well on it, if you'll recall it was a scene that was a bit spotty and I had to add some dialogue here and there, but in the end, I think it was a good thing. As someone already pointed out Gideon's story was a bit...odd. It seemed like he was there to do one thing for a few episodes then in the next he was there for another then when the Black Fairy arrived, he was there for another reason. I admit, it was odd and it was worrisome in tackling it, but the more I spent time with it the more I believed that he did have one unique story and plan, I just don't think it was told well enough on the show to be clear. Oddly enough I'm not going to fault the writers 100% for that. I think they made a gallant effort, but I think it was too complicated to tell in the scenes they chose to show. I hope that here we have the perfect medium to explain it clearly.**

 **Thank you Fox24, , Grace5231973, and Rumbellefan for your reviews and comments on the last chapter! Hopefully, as we move forward, you will be pleased with where the story goes and how I put things back together. Though, for the moment, I must apologize for current chapters. If there was one thing about this fiction that bothered me, it was how many little interactions happened back to back to back. One of the goals of Moments is to slow things down and examine various relationships. I've always done that by keeping chapters short and concise. Chapters are always either "Belle chapter" or "Belle and Blank chapter". Because of that, it happens in every fiction, that there are sometimes large scenes that I have to chop up into two or even three chapters. The last chapter was Belle and Rumple; this chapter is Belle and Gideon, next chapter is back to Belle and Rumple. It happens at least once in every fiction, but I feel like it happens a lot more in this fiction than in the others. I'm sorry if that irritates anyone as much as it does me. I don't like it, but it's what I do. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	8. Beyond the Darkness

He was gone. One second Gideon was there and the next he wasn't, and it was so reminiscent of Rumple…

She felt her legs go weak. Her knees buckled for a moment beneath her weight, and she prepared herself for the sting of the floor. But just as she felt herself begin to sway from the sheer shock of what her son had become in just a matter of hours she felt a hand on her back and then on her shoulders and at her elbows, holding her up.

Rumple.

He was back at her side, keeping a firm grasp on her as if he knew that she was about to collapse.

He opened his mouth as if to say something but all that came out was a sigh of exasperation and disbelief. What was happening between them wasn't even a thought in her mind. She got control of her footing just enough to bury her face in his chest.

"What have I don't to our son?! What have I done?!" she mumbled.

His arms were a gentle anchor, holding her up and keeping her clinging to him as she wept. For the first time, she couldn't think of anything. She had no plan, no books, no idea about what to do next. She couldn't even see a "next" beyond this moment it was just all so-

"You didn't do anything," he muttered over the top of her head.

Her back shuddered, and she only cried more. She'd done nothing?! She'd made the decision, to send him away, to-

"Belle!" he hissed as his hands moved from her back to her arms and he forced her off his chest so that she could look into his eyes. They were gentle, sympathetic. She hated his hair and everything that had passed between them in the last few days, but his eyes were once again the familiar brown pools of comfort and support they always had been in the best of times. They were filled with love, not hate. And she wasn't sure she deserved that.

"You didn't do anything," he assured her. "That woman did."

"That woman". The Black Fairy. But…who had allowed for that awful woman to take possession of him, to invade his life and theirs?! They'd been playing a game of chess against each other, but it was her move that had made their boy this way.

"But I sent him to her," she cried. "I sent him away to-"

"To be safe from me," Rumple insisted, gently applying pressure to her arms that felt comforting instead of threatening. "Belle if you hadn't, then who knows what his destiny would be by now. But it's because of you that I never cut him off from his destiny and that means that we can still change it. We can still talk to him; we can still get him back."

A future. A life and a moment beyond this one that she felt stuck and trapped in. There was something that could be done? Could their son be saved? Could this really be undone? But how? She'd do almost anything to change this, but the future seemed so dark from where she stood now.

"How?" she demanded. "What do we do? Where do we start?"

"With what he told us. Little as it was, it's enough to give us a hint of what he's planning to do."

What he was planning to do, it was foggy, the only part of their son's visit that seemed to stand out was the possible torture that he had endured under his grandmother. But it was there, the reason he was here his plan…it only seemed to make things worse in her mind.

"He…he said he wanted to kill Emma!"

"To take her power and become the new Savior-"

"But magic like that…Rumple, it's not like the Dark One's Curse! Would a theory like his even have magical validity?"

"I don't know," he answered quietly. "I heard something about it in my travels, about how Saviors never really live to see their own happy endings but I can't be sure it's true. It could just be gossip. And I've never met a 'Savior' beyond Emma."

Her stomach turned over.

"Doesn't that answer the question?" she pointed out. He was one of the oldest and most well-traveled people she knew, if he'd never met a savior other than Emma and there was a rumor that Saviors didn't live long, then didn't that only give evidence to the argument that it was true?! And what would that mean for their son if he could accomplish what he wanted? What would it mean for Emma, regardless?

"No," he denied immediately. "Saviors, true Saviors, are rare. I knew it when I made Emma the Savior who would one day break the cruse. I did it because I didn't have a good enough stock to pick from. It doesn't mean anything."

Fearful as she was, that was enough for her to hold onto. It might be a rumor. Their son might not be the death of Emma Swan. They might be able to fix this. But certainly not by standing in this pawn shop.

"Alright," she sighed, stepping away from his arms and standing firm on her own two feet. If it was going to take a fight to save her son, then she'd put up a fight. Whatever was necessary. "So, we know his plan. What do we do now? How does it help us? Where do we start? The library? The town?"

"With you going back to Hook's ship," he answered suddenly. "And staying there until I can be sure it's safe."

She felt slightly woozy again at those words. There was no way he'd just said what she thought he had…had he?

"Go back to the ship? Why?"

"Because we don't know who or what is here? Our son has magic, and he's clearly very angry?"

"So you think he'll hurt me?! You think what? He'll lock me on Killian's ship with the Black Fairy?"

She hadn't meant it in the way that he thought she did. She was just trying to defend her position, but suddenly they were both aware of exactly what and who that sounded like even if it hadn't been her intention.

"I deserved that," he answered. "But my concern isn't what he could do to you purposefully, it's what my mother could do, and it's what he might do accidentally. We don't know how much control he has over his magic, and we don't know the power he possesses. He was conceived in love, he could have all the magic of a child of True Love while at the same time possess the strength of the Dark One and that could be a lethal combination, especially if he doesn't have the control he thinks he has."

"He seemed to have plenty of control a moment ago!"

"By his own design," Rumple pointed out. "He came here on his own terms, to you and me, he was prepared. But we need to have a conversation and I can't tell how prepared he is for it. I have magic, Belle. I can get away, I can defend myself-"

"You sound like Regina!" she spat. "Always telling me I have nothing but brains and books."

"And those are remarkable things in many situations, possibly even in the near future, but not right now. Right now you need to keep yourself safe while I track him down and see what more information I can glean from him about what's about to happen. Belle time is short-"

"But Emma isn't even here right now! You said it yourself the Evil Queen sent her away!"

"And I also said she's resourceful. She won't be gone for long, she never is. We have a brief window of time in which to take advantage of her absence and diffuse the situation before it becomes a crisis!"

She didn't like this. She didn't like it one bit. Their son was out there, in a world he didn't know, with murder on his mind and it wasn't safe for her to see him?! She hated it. But one of the reasons she hated it was because knew it was true. Regina was right, if Gideon got angry and a spell was thrown, even by accident, she could do nothing but "throw a book" at it. She wished she could do more. She wished she had something more than books and brains. She wished she had magic.

But she did.

A small voice echoed somewhere in the back of her head that she did have magic of some kind just not the way she would like it. Rumple. He was her magic. He might be the key to finding Gideon and figuring out what was going on. He was the key to doing it safely. She just had to let him do it.

Finally, she let out a disappointed sigh and nodded her head. Her gut twisted even now, her mind screaming at her that these kinds of leaps of faith never turned out well for her. But that was always with the two of them, if it were the two of them, her permission and opinion wouldn't have mattered, and he'd have cast that same protection spell he did at the dock that day over the Pawn Shop and been gone by now. And yet he was still here, urging and discussing it with her, waiting for her permission. Everything screamed she couldn't trust him. But she dared to think that it might be different with their son. It was with Bae.

"Okay I'll…I'll wait for your word," she conceded.

He didn't wait for her to change her mind and he didn't say another word. He just took her permission, nodded in acknowledgment, and before she knew it the bell at the front door was chiming and-

"Belle."

She looked up to find him standing there, half in, half out, his voice was quiet as if he was afraid the world outside this shop would hear what he had to say. When he cast his eyes down in sorrow or shame, she felt her stomach give another final jerk.

"What's his name?"

She stared at him for a few seconds small tendrils of fear coursing through her as her mind cried out once more that maybe this all was a trick, an elaborate hoax just to get that information out of her. She still didn't trust him. But oddly enough she trusted his magic. The Dark One was powerful, but not enough to create this delusion, not enough to overpower the Blue Fairy, and not enough to affect the instinct she'd had that the man standing before her was truly her son and not just some dream or hallucination. He was real. Though she hadn't touched him, his appearance here had felt different than his other appearances. And she had an awful feeling that he was indeed in terrible danger.

Rumple was good at manipulation, truly he was very skilled at it, but not with her. If this was a trick she should be seeing desperation in his eyes right now, desperation for the near victory at getting the name he craved! But she didn't see that. What she saw instead was fear and worry. He couldn't fake that. Not with her. This wasn't a trick, or a delusion, but oh how she wished it was. Anything was preferable to this reality.

"Gideon," she finally choked out. "Our son's name is Gideon."

* * *

 **If there was one scene I really wanted to see but didn't in 6B it was Rumple finding out his son's name. And I don't think that I was the only one. I feel like I remember a lot of people being sad after this episode aired and they realized they wouldn't see it. I'm sorry that he doesn't find it out in a kinder more positive way, I would have liked that, but this chapter demanded that it not be so "friendly", or should I say that the chapters ahead demand it to be not so friendly. Prior to the deleted scenes being released, it was a bit better, but after I saw those I had to adjust course and set up more distrust. I'm sorry for that. I'm just doing my job and trying to keep canon intact. Still, I hope, given the situation, you still felt I did it justice.**

 **Thank you Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, and Fox24 for your reviews of the last chapter. I hope you'll be happy with the next chapter. Rapunzel is back! Small, I know, but let's face it, for the next few chapters we're going to have to take every last bit of happiness we can manage in this fiction! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	9. Before It Breaks

Outside the shop she'd found Rumple's car. Her legs weak and her body tingling, she'd found the keys in her pocket and silently slipped inside. She did go back to the Hook's ship, just like he'd told her, but only because she wasn't thinking. If she had been thinking she would have remembered long before she stumbled upon the open door and empty cabin that Rapunzel and Flynn had removed all her things from the ship and taken them to Flynn's house so that she could stay there after the loss of Gideon. If she was thinking…

But she wasn't thinking about that, in fact, she hardly thought about it on the drive from the ship back to Flynn's house. All that kept playing in her mind were scenes from earlier; words and truths that she didn't want to remember. She didn't want to think about the fact that she couldn't help her son, that she couldn't do magic. She didn't want to think that right now all her hopes and dreams where in the hands of the man that she didn't trust with her own life much less-

Rapunzel and Flynn were standing in the entryway when she opened the door to his home. Rapunzel had her arms crossed and her back arched and they were facing each other so that it looked like they were arguing, or at least they had been before she came in. Now they both stared at her with nothing but silence between them before Rapunzel strode over, enveloped her in a tight hug, then pulled away and stared her in the face.

"What did I tell you about pulling crap like that?!" she questioned angrily. "I woke up and you were gone! Where on earth-"

"I went for a walk."

"In the middle of the night?"

"I needed the fresh air but, Rapunzel, that's not important anymore-"

"Are you kidding? You could have been dead! Or kidnapped! Or-"

"Gideon was in trouble!" she shouted. The command was loud but hardly unnecessary. The moment she shouted the words Rapunzel shut her mouth as her eyes went wide and Flynn was at her side with a hand on her back in a flash, ready to work and help no matter what it took.

"Rumpelstiltskin?" was the first question on her mouth, though it sounded far more like an assumption. And probably for good reason. But that was the painful part, it wasn't his father who had been the evil one this time around, it was her.

"Me," she confessed. "I sent him away and…the Black Fairy…she got him."

"The Black Fairy? Someone at the convent?" Flynn questioned.

She shook her head. "She's..." but the words never left her mouth. "Rumple's mother" would have been her first response but suddenly the thought that she could tell Rapunzel that wasn't even a thought in her mind and it was surprising. She was sure when she went out last night Rapunzel was her only ally, and she would have divulged any secret to her if it was necessary. But now…

It wasn't that she didn't trust Rapunzel. And it wasn't that she trusted Rumple. But suddenly she had an allegiance to him that she hadn't felt for weeks. Suddenly divulging any of his secrets, even this one, felt just as wrong as it did years ago.

"She used to be a fairy…or still is but…she's not like the others," she explained, struggling to find the words she realized she didn't have. She'd met her once, informally, but she had kept her promise after that dreadful encounter and hadn't asked Rumple about her or barely thought about her since that day. The last time, beyond tonight, would have been when Rumple sent Neal, David, and Killian to the convent to fetch her wand, but she'd been so caught up in Peter Pan and Henry neither of them had really paid it much attention. The terrifying truth was that she knew very little about the woman who had taken her son, who had raised him, it appeared.

"She's a terrible woman who collects children, but I can't be sure why. I don't know much about her."

"And how do you know that she has her?"

"The Blue Fairy told us, she said-"

"Wait!" Rapunzel snapped, holding a hand up as if it could prevent her from speaking. "'Us'? You and Rumpelstiltskin?"

"Let her breathe, babe," Flynn inserted.

She ignored him and nodded. "I went out for a walk and he found me, he told me that Gideon was missing, that he tried to find him but he wasn't anywhere-"

"And you believed him?"

"I didn't," she corrected. "But he removed my cuff and had me call the convent and we found Blue. She'd been attacked. If it was a trick to find Gideon for himself it was elaborate, too elaborate for him."

"Okay…so the Black Fairy has Gideon. So we have to find the Black Fairy."

Her eyes filled with tears as she realized that wasn't the danger anymore. She couldn't get the words out, she couldn't say what she had to say because it was too unimaginable. If everything Gideon had said was true then Rumple wasn't the threat, the Black Fairy might not even be the immediate threat…it was her son. She'd created her own monster and it was her flesh and blood.

"Hey, Belle…what is it? We just want to help," Flynn added, putting a hand on Rapunzel's arm that immediately softened her.

"It's Gideon," she finally croaked out, wiping the tears from her eyes. "He's here. He's grown and he's here. He's here to…he said he wanted to kill Emma."

She watched as she and Flynn exchanged confused glances for a moment, then with or without her blessing she felt tears begin to pour from her eyes. Her back went tight and ridged as she nearly collapsed onto the floor. But just like in the Pawn Shop, hands were there to catch her. From somewhere she heard Rapunzel say "here, sit down" before guiding her to the closest the thing she had for a chair, the stairs. Rapunzel sat beside her, hugged her tight to her side and rocked her as she cried onto her shoulder because she was losing her grip on reality.

Why was everything always so hard?! She wasn't a starry-eyed girl anymore, she didn't expect life to be perfect or easy, at least not all the time, but for everything to be hard all the time seemed unfair. She'd lost her mother and father, she'd lost the love of her life more times than she could count, she'd given up her son for him to have a good life, now he was back and seeking murder, and none of that included the vast number of times she'd nearly lost her own life which paled in comparison to all the rest which was always the loss of her soul! Why did these things always happen to her? Why not someone else in town? Was it some kind of test of bravery or goodness? If it was she wasn't sure she really wanted to be brave or good anymore. She didn't know how much more she could take before she would break immediately.

Behind her she felt the staircase vibrate with steps and the voice of Flynn's sister said "oh, she's back and…what's wrong? What happened?"

"Ayana go to school," Flynn ordered immediately.

"But-"

"Ayana go to school!" he snapped again.

Behind her, she heard the girl let out an irritated sigh and as she walked around the pair of them on the stairs. She heard her mutter something about life being easier under the witch, which immediately made Flynn exclaim "Hey!" and follow his sister out the door. All she heard after that were muffled angry words exchanged on the porch. They were fighting.

Great. She ruined lives and made things worse even when she didn't mean to.

"Ignore her, she's got a little bit of freedom and is seeing just how far she can stretch it," Rapunzel explained, her tone suddenly low and calming instead of the shrieking interrogation she'd been conducting before. "Tell me about Gideon…I'm trying to understand and help but you've got to tell me what is happening." She ignored the comment and the situation all together because she understood that there was more going on. Namely her son, just as Rapunzel had said. And she was right. Not telling her about Gideon was helping no one.

So she took a deep breath, she lifted her head from her shoulders and began to explain far more calmly than she would ever have thought was possible. Gideon had gone with the Blue Fairy. The Black Fairy had found them and attacked. The Blue Fairy tried to fight back, but the Black Fairy took her son anyway to a strange realm where time works differently. Rumple had found her, told her all of this, freed her from her golden cuff, and they were halfway through discussing themselves how to get Gideon back when he appeared in the Pawn Shop a grown man. He swore that he was back to kill Emma, to absorb her powers as a Savior so that he could become a Savior and offer help to another land. How killing the Savior was going to make him one…she wasn't entirely sure. Those moments seemed blurry except for the image of her son's face.

"Rumple went to find him after he left. I wanted to go but he told me it was too dangerous since we don't know what Gideon is capable of. He didn't want me to get hurt."

"You think Gideon would hurt you?"

The word 'no' was nearly out of her mouth in a heartbeat, but something stopped it. She wanted what she knew in her heart to be the truth, but she'd learned time and time again that was a potentially deadly assumption. She knew nothing for sure. It was true that she had a connection with her son, it was what was leading her to the conclusion that this wasn't a trick, that it wasn't something that had just been concocted or imagined, it was real! What she felt for her son, what she knew when she saw him, all of that was real! And she dared to have hope that he felt it too, that he looked at her in that way and had wanted to come to see her because he loved her as she loved him! She was his mother, his real mother!

But somewhere in the back of her head, she knew that she hadn't created him magically on her own. She wasn't the only connection he had to the world. He had one to his father as well. The same father that had gone after him, to talk to him. Gideon had already mentioned his desire for murder and power...just like his father.

Killing the Savior wouldn't be easy.

Suddenly her stomach tightened, and her body went numb. Rumpelstiltskin had said something like that to Gideon the moment he'd talked about murdering Emma. He hadn't frowned upon the task or told him it wouldn't work or begged him not to do it. He'd just said it wouldn't be an easy task. Her mind began to race as she wondered what she'd done, how stupid she had been! Was Rumple going to talk their son down from this murderous ledge, or would he talk him up to it?!

"I can't sit here," she concluded, jumping to her feet and moving up the stairs. She needed to put on clothes and then go back out there, despite what Rumple had said! This could have all been a terrible trick to get her to leave him alone as the two of them killed Emma, together! It wasn't as if he'd never tried before! "I can't do nothing, I have to go, I have to help."

"How?" her friend questioned, following quickly after her.

"Gideon!" she answered, a plan forming in her mind. "He came to see us, both of us, me and Rumple and when he looked at me…he wants to do the right thing, he wants to be a hero, I…I know he'll listen to me! I should never have let Rumple go alone! He needs me right now, not his father!"

"How are you planning on finding him? Are you going to summon Rumpelstiltskin? Use his magic?!"

"I don't know; I haven't gotten that far yet, I just know I have to talk to him! If I can't get help from Rumple then I'll…I'll talk to David and Snow, whichever of them is awake! Emma's not here right now so maybe we can come to some arrangement. Maybe they'll help. They don't want their daughter dead and I don't want my son to-"

The words caught in her throat and wouldn't go anywhere because they were unspeakable. Death. That was where this would lead. If she didn't stop this, couldn't stop him then Emma might kill Gidoen and then-

"Hey!" Rapunzel murmured stepping forward and taking her hands. "He's going to be okay. He's your son, David and Snow don't want him dead."

"They won't want Emma dead either," she muttered.

"They don't want anyone dead," Rapunzel settled. "We'll go. We'll talk to them, we'll figure this out!"

"No," she refused, her mind already thinking through a plan in her mind. "I need information."

"On the Black Fairy? You want me to go to the library? To look up-"

"No. There's nothing to research, at least not yet. But with Emma gone…I need to know what is happening in Storybrooke and if Emma has come back. Do you remember a few months ago when I sent you to Granny's?" The memory was so distant it seemed like it was years ago that Rumple had locked himself in the pawn shop and rewritten their history with Isaac, the author. But she remembered. And so did Rapunzel; she nodded. "Do that again. If Emma comes back the first place we'll hear the news is Granny's."

"Are you sure?" she asked as Belle ran around the room fetching clothes and preparing for whatever fight she was about to wage. "Isn't there anything else-"

"No, there's nothing, don't you see?!" she exclaimed remembering Rumple's point about the small window of opportunity. "It's the most important thing there is. So long as Emma stays away we have a chance. So long as Emma is gone we can fix this before it's really broken."

* * *

 **Sometimes one of the most difficult things of this fiction is building in time for them to change clothes. Silly, right? But still absolutely true. I think it was even more difficult in this fiction than others of this series. Maybe I'm wrong here, but it just seems to me that in an emergency situation you forego things like showers, changing, and doing hair. And yet Belle not only seems perfectly put together each day but a lot of times her hair is pretty intricately done which has always made me scratch my head. I have long hair, I know how long it takes to fix it up nice like that. You're telling me that all hell could break loose any minute, but you're going to stand in front of the mirror for twenty minutes making sure your hair is perfect? Yes, you are telling me that, because it happened. Not much I can do about it. But I did manage to build in all the times Belle changes. Hopefully, they'll be acceptable and who knows, maybe I'm in the minority on this. Maybe you'll all write me back and say "it's just you, in an emergency I always double check my appearance!"**

 **Thank you, thank you, thank you to Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, Fox24, and Rumbellefan for your reviews on the last chapter as well as your conversations. It was all very interesting. I was a little nervous about releasing these next few chapters, but you've kind of put me at ease for them. I'm not exactly excited to release them, but I'm interested to hear your thoughts and one thing that hasn't changed, I'm excited for that moment about five chapters from now when it's over and we can begin our forward motion in their relationship! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	10. The Window of Opportunity

It seemed to be a complete surprise to Rapunzel, but for once she didn't have much of a plan. Somehow she had decided that the time it would take to formulate one would take far too long, and she wasn't willing to risk her son's life any more than it already was. Rapunzel knew it was odd; she could see it written all over her face when she finally finished hastily dressing and went down the stairs to find Ayana had gone to school. Flynn was waiting for them and for a plan of some kind, but she had none to offer.

"There is no plan," she confessed breathlessly. "Go to Granny's with Rapunzel she'll explain it all."

"Wait, wait!" Rapunzel called before she could leave the house. She was expecting an argument or some kind of response from Flynn but instead when she turned around Rapunzel threw her arms around her. The hug was tight; she couldn't have escaped or pushed away if she tried. But she felt no need to. She knew Rapunzel had hugged and held her only about a million times in the last twenty-four hours and yet she felt as though she couldn't remember any of them all of a sudden. There was just this one hug. Tight as it was she felt Rapunzel sigh and she put her own arms around her to return it.

"Be safe," Rapunzel whispered in her ear. "And check in, please."

She nodded against her shoulder a silent promise before glancing over at Flynn watching the entire thing before him with nervous curiosity. She pulled away from Rapunzel then and made a motion for the door.

"Take care of each other," she whispered before disappearing out the door.

She didn't have a plan. She had no idea what this was leading to, but she knew step one was to talk to David or Snow. That was essential. This wasn't a plan, it was a window of opportunity, and she didn't know what lay outside the window, but she was prepared to jump through it because she was certain that whatever was outside was far better than what would meet her if she didn't jump at all.

Where to search for them was easy enough. She already knew that the Jolly Roger was empty, as she'd accidentally gone there before Rapunzel's house. The police station was on her way to Main Street, but when she ducked in, she found that the building was empty. That made her nervous. Emma wasn't in town so she had expected that she would be gone, but she was certain that if David was awake, then he would be here. That left her with the reality that it might be Snow White who was awake and it hadn't dawned on her until just now, but she'd been hoping it was David she would find, for reasons she didn't quite fathom.

The Jolly Roger and Police Station were empty that left her with three options. Granny's, the school where Snow worked, or the apartment.

The apartment. She'd go there next. She had never been inside the school and wouldn't even know where to begin looking for Snow there, and she was confident that if Flynn and Rapunzel got to Granny's and found either David or Snow then they would call her. She could always phone to find out where they were…but she knew that considering what was happening talking would be better face to face. She'd go to the apartment. If no one was there, then she'd start making phone calls.

Her heart beat the entire time as she walked down the street. It took everything that she had not to run to the apartment, but as she moved up the steps, she found that her intuition was rewarded. The door to Snow and David's apartment was already open. And from inside she could hear people talking, the voices of two familiar men. So…Snow was asleep, and David was awake. She was lucky enough there, though she didn't necessarily understand why.

David was awake, and he was talking to Killian. That wasn't a surprise, with Emma away chances would have been high they'd be working together, trying to figure out how to get her back. But as she moved up the stairs, she caught small bits of their conversation and was surprised to find that it wasn't about Emma at all.

"Dwarves have searched the entire northern woods; there's no sign of our guy or anyone else for that matter," Killian explained.

"He couldn't have just vanished, we must have missed something," David added.

"This would be so much easier if we knew who the bloody hell we were looking for!" Killian exclaimed angrily.

She had to close her eyes and take a deep breath. It wasn't Emma they were talking about. It was a man. And she knew she had the answers they were looking for.

"His name's Gideon," she shouted slipping into the room and closing the door. There was no need to risk anyone else eavesdropping or finding out about this before they had to.

"Belle!" David exclaimed with surprise as they both looked over their shoulders to find her there. Both were more than surprised. Both were curious as to the information she presented them with. They were so used to her being an ally and frankly she was used to them in that capacity as well…so did that make them allies?!

"He's my son," she finally confessed looking at David and not Killian. David was a parent, Emma was missing, he knew this feeling! He'd be sympathetic to her!

"Your son is an infant," Killian interrupted.

"He was," she answered finally looking at him as her heart wrenched. This was all her fault. "Then he grew up in another realm without his parents and that experience…affected him." She was answering Killian, but she was still looking at David. How odd, she'd never really thought anything special of David, a prince from the Enchanted Forest, he was good with a sword and immensely helpful, but he always had appeared to her as Snow's husband or Emma's sidekick. Why had she never really thought about who he was until now? Now that they were suddenly both the same…two parents looking for their children, wanting only the best for both of them, he wouldn't let anything happen to Gideon, he would understand! Wouldn't he?

"Affected him?" David questioned. She felt her heart sink as she watched his eyes go dark and hard and suddenly she knew the answer before he had to give it. "He's trying to kill Emma!"

"I-I know," she stuttered, trying desperately to keep them on her side, to help all of them see reason. How did they know that he was trying to kill Emma so quickly? Had he appeared to them too? "It's not his fault! He's confused and…Rumple's out there looking for him right now!"

She wanted to slap herself. One look at Killian and she knew that he wouldn't take kindly to that particular plan. He doubted Rumple just as she did.

"To stop him? Or aid him?" he pressed.

She held her breath and thought about it. She wanted to say that it was to stop him. Truly, with all her heart, she wanted to say that she believed Rumple would stop Gideon from doing this, but her history with Rumple told her that she couldn't trust his words or his motivations. And that meant that she couldn't, in good conscience, tell them what they all wanted to hear.

"I don't know," she finally admitted. "But I do know that I can stop him!" she corrected immediately. "If I can just talk to him, reason with him, as his mother…" she glanced once more at David. But he still looked skeptical and angry. Though now she could see one other look in his eyes, sadness. He understood the complexity of all this. But was it enough to give him sympathy for the man attempting to kill his daughter for her magic?

"I don't know Belle," he whispered with a shake of his head. "If he's really planning to kill Emma-"

"We're going to have to stop him," Killian inserted quickly. How very like both of them. David tried to soften the blow, Killian had decided to get it over with. Either way, both had already decided that Gideon was the enemy, the villain of this tale, and his fate was that of all villains…destruction. But they didn't understand. It wasn't always destruction! Yes, Cruella, Cora, and even Peter Pan had all died, but it didn't have to be that way! Ursula had changed sides, been pliant when it was necessary. Regina was no longer the Evil Queen she had once been, though she wasn't about to bring up the Evil Queen that was running around Storybrooke now, and Ingrid had found peace and love before she'd died breaking her own curse! Sometimes the villains in their stories didn't need to be destroyed, they just needed to be reasoned with, and that was what she needed to do with Gideon. She just knew that it was true. And she'd just done everything that she could think of to keep her son safe, no matter how she had failed in that task she wasn't about to step aside and allow them to kill her son. She was no more willing than they were to let Gideon hurt Emma.

"But that doesn't mean he has to be hurt!" she begged of Killian. "And neither one of our children need to be harmed!" she pointed out to David. "Look, I came to you for help because I trust you. Can you trust me?"

David and Killian both avoided her gaze as well as one another's. She didn't need words to know that was a bad sign.

"Let's just find him," David insisted. "The sooner we do the better, then take your shot, but if it doesn't work-"

"Thank you," she interrupted quickly, unable to allow him to finish the sentence as Killian gathered up their things to go. She smiled at them both as they stepped away from the counter to reveal a map of Storybrooke that she herself had used before. She smiled, she participated, but she was more aware than ever of the unfinished sentence that lingered between them.

If it didn't work then Gideon was on his own, and they expected her to understand as they did what was necessary to protect Emma. She did. She understood perfectly. And in return, she hoped that they understood the dark thoughts suddenly racing through her mind. If this didn't work, then they were on their own, and she would do what was necessary to protect her son, no matter the cost.

* * *

 **Wait a second, I don't remember this scene from the show! No. No, you do not. When the season six DVD came out there were about three deleted scenes from this episode that featured a storyline involving Belle. This was one of those scenes. I have traditionally added deleted scenes and extended scenes into my fiction and I, despite the content of these few scenes, I was quite happy to do it this time around. Fair warning, these scenes do not exactly show Belle, Hook, or David, in favorable light. But that being said, I happen to really love these scenes. I felt that they made the scene at the well make so much more sense and I also loved Belle learned from these scenes. I also thought that it was totally in character for her to do what's coming next and showed just how far apart she and Rumple were at this moment in time and how much ground they had to cover to get back to each other. The scenes aren't pretty if you are a Belle fan, but as a Belle fan, I like them, so hopefully, you will too.**

 **Big thank yous to Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, and Rumbellefan for the reviews on the last chapter. We are nearly out of the difficult chapters my friends. Stay with me. When this is over, we'll still be in 6x11, obviously, but it's the moment that Rumple and Belle finally come together and actually start to work together. So if you really hate these chapters then take comfort that we are going to be getting into "the good stuff" very soon! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	11. Of Plans and Maps

"If Rumpelstiltskin is with him that might actually help us," David commented. "A stranger in an unfamiliar town is erratic, but if he's with the Dark One then there is some predictability. Where would he go?"

"Well…he won't be somewhere he's expecting us to look," she muttered seeing the flaw in David's logic. They needed to find Gideon but looking for him through Rumple didn't exactly seem like a winning plan. Rumple could hide himself if he wanted. And he was smart; he'd know Gideon's arrival wouldn't stay hidden for long and if not now then people would soon be searching for him. He wasn't going to go somewhere that he knew they'd look.

"But that's just the thing, he's not expecting us to look," David mentioned. "You said yourself that he was going to talk to Gideon, he mentioned nothing about being on the run with him."

"And you expect the Dark One to be a good parent and stop his son from killing Emma? Doubtful," Killian explained. "And…I hate to be the one to poke holes but finding out where he is doesn't help us if we have no plan for what happens after we find him."

"If we find him, then I'll talk to him," she insisted.

"And if diplomacy fails?" Killian questioned.

"It won't fail! I'm his mother. He came to find me; he wants to do the right thing he's just confused about what the right thing is at the moment! I can help him. What?!"

It seemed like a foolproof plan to her, but the look that Killian and David were exchanging at the moment said that they thought it was anything but foolproof, and she didn't understand why.

"I know you want to believe that, Belle," David answered, avoiding her gaze. "I know, I've been there and had a child who wanted to do the right thing but was touched by dark magic."

"This isn't like the Dark One's curse-"

"No, it's not, that's the problem," he fought back. "We don't know what it's like. I understand Gideon is in pain, but you've had one conversation with him. You don't know what he's been told or taught. You don't know how strong his will is or even what his will is. And I get that because I've been there before with Emma."

"Emma didn't come to town to try and murder the Savior," she snapped stepping away from the table. She understood that he was trying to sympathize with her, but as similar as their stories were, they weren't the same.

"Which is why we need a plan, love," Killian insisted. She only glared at him as he stepped forward and he stopped immediately. "Belle," he corrected quickly. "I don't want things to go poorly, but if they do-"

"No," she stated before he could finish it. "I won't accept it. There must be a way, a way to help Gideon that doesn't destroy him, a way for us to keep both our children safe. There has to be a way to keep him from this…this fate."

She felt something in her belly stir as an idea sprouted to mind. It was both good and bad. It left a bad taste in her mouth. It made her want to recoil from her own being but…the more she thought about it the more sense it made.

"The Shears of Destiny," she muttered. "Rumple was going to use them to cut Gideon from his fate, to bind him to him but…but the worst has already happened. Gideon clearly believes that it is his fate to kill Emma so if we use the scissors now then…then your child lives and so does mine."

David and Killian looked at each other again, and she wanted to throw something at them. She was getting tired of that look. It made her feel like they were having a conversation that she wasn't a part of. But this involved her son! If anyone deserved to know what they were thinking, it was her! And-

"The Shears haven't been seen since Rumpelstiltskin took possession of them. And seeing how it is the Dark One, there are any number of places he could have used to hide them." Killian mentioned off hand. No, of course they hadn't been seen, but that was easily fixable. Especially when she still had the keys to nearly everything they had once owned.

"So, we find them. We find them, and then we find Gideon and if talking to him doesn't work…"

Then she would have to cut him from his fate with the scissors. The words even sounded wrong in her mind. Could she do this? Was she capable of doing it? She didn't want for her son to be cut off from his destiny…but looking at Killian and David, she could see that if he threatened to follow through with it, being cut off from his destiny would be the least of her worries. It was either lose her son altogether or separate him from his destiny. The choice was obvious.

"I need matches. I need matches, alcohol, water, paper, and a bit of Emma's magic," she informed them.

"Emma's magic?" Killian questioned.

She nodded. The spell that she had in mind was simple, but unless she had magic, then she would just be burning some random junk. "Something she made with her magic, it can be anything, golden straw, thread, pottery."

Killian began looking around the apartment, as if expecting to find something randomly sitting on the table or hanging from a window. David, on the other hand, went oddly silent and cast his eyes down to the ground.

"I have something," David muttered after a few quiet moments. Without another explanation he shuffled back to the bedroom. She heard the squeak of a closet opening, and a few moments later he returned with a dreamcatcher. "It's mine. It's the one she made in Camelot to contain my memories when we came back to Storybrooke. Snow and I kept them, but…if it'll help."

"Thank you," she whispered taking the object from him. She could tell that somehow the craft meant something to him and it was a sad occasion that it be destroyed. Ordinarily, she would feel something, guilt or sadness, but considering he might be someone who might have a hand in murdering her child when all was said and done, she pushed those thoughts aside. David scrambled to find her a lighter and paper and pen while she reached into the fridge for wine. Red was all they had but she didn't think it would affect the spell. She filled a large bowl with wine and then water before crumpling the map they were using up in front of them and leaving it to soak in the mixture. As it did, she took the paper and pen that David handed to her and wrote "Shears of Destiny" across it. It had been a long time since she'd done magic herself. She'd helped people with it and studied it of course, but she hadn't had to actually perform it since just after she'd been a happily married woman. She hoped she wasn't too rusty.

When the map was good and soaked she gently wrung it out and spread it out over the kitchen counter. It was stained pink and purple from the wine, but still readable. In the center, she placed David's dreamcatcher and over top of that the piece of paper which she folded and kissed so that her lipstick stained the paper. She hoped it was enough.

With everything complete, she took the lighter David had found and touched it to the dreamcatcher. It only took a moment for anything to happen, but that moment seemed to stretch on for so long that she was almost certain it didn't work. Then all at once, there was a spark from the dreamcatcher, then another just before the thing burst into flame. A second later it took the paper in the center with it, and a tower of fire erupted that nearly touched the ceiling. Everyone stepped back, and she saw David look over his shoulder at Snow sleeping in the bed behind him. Surely he was judging distances and making sure he had time to grab her and leave the apartment just in case the fire proved damaging. But it didn't. Just as expected the flames retreated and spread out over the map. Slowly she watched the paper burn, but not a single bit of it turned to ash, except for a little spot by one of Storybrooke's lake, as they watched it was the only thing that began to smolder and smoke. A moment later the dreamcatcher, paper, and fire were all gone, but the map had stayed behind along with a single burn that she recognized.

"The cabin!" she exclaimed. "He's hidden it in the cabin! We can get it now!" She was nearly halfway to the door when she heard Killian call out "Wait!" and had to stop.

"What's it done?" he questioned looking at the map. David hunched over too before grabbing a magnifying glass from a drawer and peering down at it. She took timid steps closer, unsure if she was ready to confront what had gone wrong yet, but she felt like she could see it even before she took the magnifying glass. The instrument only helped to confirm it. The spell hadn't burned the spot over the cabin, it had burned around it, leaving a tiny piece of the map the exact outline of the cabin untouched. And she had a hunch that she knew what that meant without needing to pick up a book.

"Protection spell," she declared putting the glass aside. "He's hidden the scissors at the cabin and placed a protection spell around the cabin." He'd never done that before, never hidden something and then placed a protection spell around it. Her anger boiled as she realized that she was right. She shouldn't have trusted him with their son. If he encouraged him to kill Emma, there was nothing she could do to stop him.

Not nothing. Just little. Though the situation seemed hopeless, she realized that there was no living with this. She couldn't just throw her hands up and say "oh well" as she sat back and let Rumple do this! She had to try. Surely there was something to be done.

"We can't break the spell because none of us are magical," she muttered working through it.

"Emma and Regina are trapped in a wish realm, they can't help us."

"Regina is there too?!" she questioned immediately.

Killian nodded.

"How did that happen? How did the Evil Queen send them there in the first place?"

"She sent Emma first," David explained covering the viper back up. "Aladdin became a genie to help Jasmine find Agrabah, but the Evil Queen got the lamp and that made her the master. She sent Emma to a place where she would 'get what she wished for'."

"And then Regina realized that since she and the Evil Queen are one in the same, she was a master too. She couldn't undo the wish, but she could go in after her," Killian finished

"The Evil Queen allowed that?"

"She didn't have much choice," David breathed. "The only thing that matters at the moment is that we don't have Emma and we don't have Regina."

"So we need someone else," she mumbled thinking. "I doubt the Evil Queen would help even if we asked nicely, and I'm not exactly jumping up and down to use her in this situation. She may very well have helped set this up!"

"Ah…"

From across the room, still at the little island, one of the men let out a stuttered noise, but by the time she looked up, she couldn't tell which one because they were both looking at each other with uncertainty. This again? Those looks? They were getting old?

"What?" she questioned. "What did I miss?"

"The Evil Queen," Hook began as David moved to the side of the room. "She's sort of…out of commission at the moment." David pulled a sheet off of what looked like a bird cage, but the noise that came from inside was not a singing songbird. It was the sharp hiss that made her jump out of her chair.

"A snake?!" she exclaimed moving closer. The eyes followed her, then glanced up at David and back at Hook. There was loathing in those eyes, loathing like she'd never seen in any other animal that told her exactly what it was they were trying to tell her. "Rumple turned the Evil Queen into a snake!" It could be no one else. Attached to her neck was a golden bangle that she recognized immediately as the bracelet he'd only just taken off of her!

"Actually…this is compliments of your son."

Her stomach turned over. "Gideon did this?" she questioned looking over the bracelet. It didn't seem possible. "Why? What could he possibly have to gain?"

"Anyone's guess."

She stared in wonder all the while her mind was working. "No Emma, no Regina, no Evil Queen, not that she felt a great loss for that one. None of them had magic, they had to have help! And fortunately, she knew of one more person who did have magic and just might agree to help them.

* * *

 **It's hard for me to say that I "like" this chapter in the traditional sense. There are plenty of other chapters coming soon that I really do like and really do love a lot more than this one. But that being said, I like this chapter in the sense that there are things I really appreciate about it. For one, I've always liked when Belle takes charge and that is certainly what is happening here. David and Killian may be on uncertain ground but she's the brains. She's the one with the plan (no matter how much I don't like that plan), she's the one who does the magic to enact it, she's the one doing the heavy lifting. I love that because I feel like it's a return to the Belle we all really fell in love with. Also, I really love when Belle uses magic. It was startling to me when I had her do it in this chapter just how long it had been since she'd done anything that would have been considered "magical" and not just research, but I like when she comes back to it.**

 **Thank you to Grace5231973, Fox24, and Paintbrush123 on your previous reviews. I do have the answer to a question for one lucky reader today. In fact, I was waiting to answer this question because the answer is more or less in this chapter. I was asked previously why Rumple didn't tell Belle the whole story about Emma and Regina, why he didn't tell her about Aladdin and the genie and this and that. When I'm writing I have to constantly consider where the news is coming from, how much it matters to that person, and if there is a reason for it. Why didn't Belle ask about Aladdin? Because for all she knows he wasn't involved in Emma's departure. Last Belle saw him he was walking away with Jasmine after doing as she'd asked and she was fine with that. He's not a friend, he's an associate. No reason to check up. Why didn't Rumple give her the full story before? Because it didn't matter. When he mentioned Emma was gone it was because they were worried for their son. The details of her departure pale in comparison to the details of his son's departure. Emma's not around to help them, end of important information. In this chapter, I thought David and Killian were the best ones to finally give her the full story and catch her up, but that's not always the case. There are a lot of times that sometimes she just never finds out about things that are going on because for one reason or another it just never makes it to her. If I have the opportunity to share the information I take it, but if I don't get one, she just goes on without ever knowing. Hope that cleared things up. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	12. An Essential Game Piece

They might not have been able to perform the magic that they needed, but she knew one person still in town who might. The men were a bit shocked by the suggestion she'd made, but she stood by it as she gathered her things, nearly out the door already.

"She's helped me before with the sleeping curse, and she was willing to use the Apprentice's Wand to send me out of Storybrooke!"

"No offense love, but it doesn't seem either of those things turned out well in the end."

She rolled her eyes before stopping at the door to face them once more. "We could argue about it all afternoon. But the truth is that Zelena is the only one that we know of who has magic and might actually help us. Those scissors are our only chance to make sure our children both come out of this alive in the end. What other choice do we have?"

Neither said anything against her plan, they just looked at each other once more, the male version of she and Rapunzel when they communicated through looks instead of words.

"We'll be at the police station when you're finished," David informed her. "There are better maps of that area that might help us once we get there."

Belle honestly didn't see the point in all of that. She knew where the cabin was, Zelena was the way in, Rumple was out looking for their son…this plan was foolproof. But she didn't bring that up. She could see from Killian's eyes that he was ready to kill should it save the life of Emma and she was certain David's thoughts were only marginally better. She had to make this plan as easy and simple as she could to keep them on board with her.

Back into the car she went, happy she'd thought to toss a coat and hat into the car. She was going to need it by the end of the day.

The farmhouse was a fair distance from town, but this morning it only took her fifteen minutes to drive there. It looked like it always did. Smoke rose from the chimney, a couple of lights were on inside, and it was quiet. Robin must be asleep somewhere and Zelena was probably enjoying having the house to herself again without the Evil Queen. She had no idea whether or not she knew what had happened to her sister, but she knew that things hadn't been good between them, not since Regina had succeeded in stopping the Evil Queen from killing Zelena at Rumple's behest.

Keeping a possible sleeping child in mind, she tapped on the door instead of knocking. From inside there was not a single sound. She looked around and over her shoulder, instinctively shivering at the sight of the door to the cellar Rumple had been kept months ago. No cars. But Zelena didn't drive, she traveled by magic, so it was impossible to tell if she was even here or not. She tapped on the door again, this time a little louder thinking that if Robin squirmed and Zelena was home she might at least notice that. But still, no sounds of a living soul came from inside the tiny farmhouse.

Turning back when she was unsure simply wasn't an option. She had a perfect plan and it all hinged on Zelena! She couldn't go back to the police station without her! So, after only a second of thought and a deep breath, she put her hand to the knob and turned. The door opened for her.

"Zelena?" she stated coming into the farmhouse and closing the door behind her. The open door was where the progress stopped. Zelena didn't own a big home, it was perfect for mother and daughter but she always figured that Zelena and the Evil Queen would probably be pushing it. Still, she didn't need to walk far to know that no one was downstairs. "Zelena?!" she called a bit louder. She was just starting to believe that the witch was either careless or just plain bold to leave her house unlocked when she left, when there was a sound from above her. Footsteps. No one was downstairs, she was upstairs.

She'd never been upstairs in Zelena's house before. Not her actual house at least. Zelena had taken her to the attic once, in the Underworld, but they'd bypassed the upper floor quickly on that trip and she'd had eyes only for what Zelena had been doing. Now that she was upstairs she could see it was nearly as simple as downstairs. A few bedrooms, a bathroom in the hall. Nothing terribly spectacular. A farmhouse through and through. In the room to her right she saw a bassinet and determined quickly enough that it was Robin's and she was in fact asleep, but in the room across from her she heard quiet fumbling. Zelena's room.

Turning her back on Robin she found Zelena there in her bedroom. There was a suitcase open on her bed and the fumbling she'd heard was Zelena doing a haphazard job of folding clothes and shoving them unorganized into the case. Without a door on the room she knocked only on the frame and finally Zelena glanced up and realized she was there. For someone who was acting very on edge at the moment, she wasn't very observant.

"What are you doing? Are you leaving?!" she shrieked at the witch.

"Yes, I am," she answered coolly. "So whatever you're here to ask me the answer is 'no'."

Leaving. She wasn't leaving, she was getting ready to run! And probably for good reason. Sudden as the change was she felt a sense of relief from this news. Zelena was getting ready to run and that made her desperate. She was pliable when she was desperate. She'd done convinced her of other things in the past, and she felt a sudden surge of confidence that she could do it now with the right temptations. This could benefit both of them.

"No please it's about my son!"

"Oh yeah, he sounds like a real delight! I heard what he did to the Evil Queen, so I'm getting out of town before things get really nasty."

No. No, she couldn't leave! Not yet! She was the only one who could help them figure this out before it got "nasty", before Regina brought Emma home and then nothing really could be done

"I-I-I know you want to keep your daughter safe, of course, I understand that, but running away is not the answer! Rumple wants you dead! He's going to come after you!"

"Well, he already tried to kill me once, and he failed!"

Tried to kill her once? No…he'd tried to kill her twice! The first time when they were in the kitchen and he'd begun to choke her only to discover that he couldn't hurt Zelena without hurting himself because of the cordial she'd given him when they'd been in New York. But what she was fairly certain she was referring to wasn't that moment. It was what the nun had spoken of when they learned that he had the aging dust. He'd told The Evil Queen to kill Zelena. Regina had rushed off quickly to save her that time, but seeing as how the Evil Queen was currently sitting in a cage as a snake…

"No…the Evil Queen failed, okay?" she whispered as if it was a secret. Just because the Evil Queen hadn't succeeded didn't mean someone else wouldn't. She'd never known Rumpelstiltskin to give up on anything. She was certain he wouldn't start with Zelena.

"Now Rumple has someone much stronger to take under his wing, our son. Alright? He's had a difficult life, he's in pain, I know Rumple, he will take advantage of that! He'll try and turn Gideon towards the Darkness. If he succeeds, Gideon will come looking for you." And she knew as well as Zelena that Gideon had nothing to prevent him from murdering Zelena. No familiar ties, no cordials to cure hearts, nothing! Rumple knew he couldn't kill Zelena with his own hands. Gideon could. And Zelena knew it too.

She sighed in defeat as she closed her suitcase. "Like father like son."

She nodded, holding in her tears. She was getting remarkably good at that today. All she felt like she'd wanted to do was cry, but she'd been forced to keep it all in. She'd tried so hard to prevent this and in the end, she'd caused it.

"Yeah, but it doesn't have to end that way, alright?" They could stop it. Terrible as she believed the act was, it was the only thing she could think of now that might help everyone live another day and deliver Gideon from the Darkness she'd thrust upon him. "I can…I can lead Gideon towards the light, but I can't do it without magic. Your magic. So the only way for you to keep your daughter safe, is to help me save my son!"

Zelena kept her arms crossed over her chest as she listened, all the while looking down at the suitcase she had packed. She knew better than to talk at a moment like this. Zelena was considering exactly what she'd told her and that was precisely what she needed her to be doing. She'd scared her enough into thinking that running away posed no benefit, whereas staying and fighting did.

"What exactly did you have in mind this time?" Zelena finally questioned.

All the pieces fell into place.

* * *

 **For the most part, I liked these scenes. Despite the light they portray Belle in, I did find them good, strong, character development scenes, and really felt they should have been included. But if there was one thing I didn't like (aside from the obvious), it was how much running around took place in these scenes and how much of it seemed unnecessary considering the emergency situation they were in. So they decide on a plan, then David and Killian say "you go get Zelena we'll go to the police station for no apparent reason and look at maps of Storybrooke! Oh and we'll take the snake with us just because we like our new pet. Once you retrieve Zelena from the woods come all the way back to town to get us and then we'll drive all the way out into the woods again!" That's a lot of useless movement for something that should have been as simple as "you think Zelena can help? Great! Let's all go and then we'll be in the truck when you are done talking to her." It was ridiculous, but I hope I kinda sorta made those motions work here. It was the hardest part of the deleted scenes.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973 and Fox24, for your reviews on the last chapter. One more chapter! One more chapter before we are out of these deleted scenes and onto the good stuff you all came here for! We've almost made it! Bear with me! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	13. Her Crazy Idea

Zelena thought she was crazy too. She could see it in her eyes the moment that she told her the plan. But the difference between Zelena and David and Killian was that Zelena was crazy herself. Maybe that was all she needed to really make her crazy plan into a reality.

"And tell me," Zelena questioned, picking Robin up out of her bassinet. They planned to leave her at Granny's until this was over. "Where is my darling sister now? Not roaming the streets of Storybrooke, I hope. Her bite was nasty before, now I imagine it's just downright poisonous."

"She's with David and Snow, in their apartment, in a birdcage they keep covered for her own protection. David is guarding her."

"Well then with any luck she won't be there for long. Can't imagine Prince Charming feeling comfortable with leaving a vicious snake in the apartment his precious wife is slumbering without any defenses."

She didn't have an answer to that, though she supposed it was true. She couldn't see David leaving the Evil Queen alone in the apartment with Snow's sleeping form. Stranger things than the Evil Queen escaping had been known to happen around Storybrooke.

They left Robin with Granny and Rapunzel, who was diligently sitting on a bar stool with water and a cell phone by her arm, waiting for news that Emma had returned. She thanked her before hurrying Zelena back into the car and over the police station where the men had agreed to meet her should she been successful or not in convincing Zelena to help them. Obviously, she had, and the minute she stepped back into the station with Zelena the look on their faces was one of surprise.

"She's agreed to help!" David stated, looking up from the place that Killian and David were hunched over the desk.

"You know me! I love to play hero!" the witch announced before heading straight for the covered cage she'd seen in the apartment. Clearly, she'd been right that it wouldn't be left at the apartment, and knowing what was inside of it, she whipped the covering off without hesitation and made a noise of false surprise. "Hello, Sis!" she taunted rounding on the snake inside. "Oh, your skin has never looked better!"

She ignored the smiling witch and looked over at the men instead. "Zelena has as much to lose as we do and now that we've got her help we can bring down the protection spell on the cabin, find those shears, they can cut my son from his destiny, prevent him from ever becoming the Savior and from hurting anyone."

The men looked at her skeptically. "I hope so love," Killian finally admitted, but there was no note of optimism in his voice. He didn't trust that this would work. Honestly, she had negative feelings about all this as well, but she wasn't sure if those feelings came from a doubt that this plan would succeed or just the awfulness that she felt at having to use the shears on her own son to save him from what she'd turned him into. She wished that Aladdin had never brought them here. Life would have been so much simpler. But it was what it was. This was for the greater good and she would just have to live with the guilt.

"So…we all ready then?" she questioned looking everyone over. Standing here trying to justify her actions was only making her heart hurt. It was time to go. The men still looked uncertain and uneasy about this entire thing, but who didn't? David finally glanced at Hook and then back at her with a false smile like he'd been using on her since she first went to them for help.

"Yeah, we're ready." David looked Zelena over uneasily and then took off down the hall. "Hook rides with me."

"I'll go with the bookworm, I'm sure we'll have loads to talk about, motherhood and all that."

"We'll ride together!" David muttered glaring at the witch. "There's less noise with only one car!"

"Well in that case I think I'll…meet you there!"

With a giggle and puff of smoke Zelena disappeared. She looked at the men. "What was that about?" she questioned feeling like she'd just missed something important. Killian only issued another glare at David. It was a look entirely different from the knowing looks they'd been giving each other all day. What was going on?

"Nothing," David finally answered picking up his keys. "We'd better get going."

And so they did. She squeezed herself into David's truck, sitting between the two men. There was silence on the drive up, but she didn't take notice of it. She was too confused to feel anything beyond what was flashing through her mind at the moment. Her nerves were electric, carrying her from one emotion to the next. She felt as though she was excited, but she knew enough to know that wasn't the right word for what was coursing through her at the moment. Anticipation could be just as awful a feeling as it could a wonderful feeling. Everything inside of her, her gut, her stomach, her very sense of being told her that getting those scissors was just as much if not more a bad thing than it was a good thing, but her head told her otherwise. Her head told her there was no other choice, not if she wanted to save her son, not if she wanted Emma safe! This wasn't what she wanted, but it was the only thing she could think of.

Zelena was standing in the foliage on the road when they finally arrived. "About time," she muttered when they finally got out of the car. "Did you all have a lovely drive up?" she asked almost pleasantly, as if there was some joke she wasn't understanding.

"Let's just do this," Killian snarled, with a temper she wasn't quite sure was appropriate for all of this.

And David's glare at Zelena, not Killian…her stomach was in knots already but she could have sworn that it was suddenly in one more.

"What's going on?" she questioned.

"Nothing," David answered quickly.

"Let's just get the damn scissors and get out," Killian growled.

Together they walked to the front of the cabin. It looked just as abandoned as it always did. That was encouraging. Breaking the protection spell to search for the scissors…this was the first step. This was a good thing. Wasn't it.

At the step just before the door Zelena put her hand to property and a thin wall of purple appeared before her. Protection spell. "Dark One Magic," Zelena muttered.

"Can you break through?" David asked.

"Please…" Zelena answered sarcastically before waving her hand and-

She hadn't expected that!

The protection spell broke, the door opened, and there before her was not an empty, abandoned cabin, but Rumpelstiltskin and their son.

Gideon already had the shears in his hand!

Obviously, this wasn't going to be as simple as she'd assumed it would be.

Zelena made the first move up the stairs and into the cabin and she followed, her mouth hanging open, hardly able to take her eyes off Gideon and those shears he held.

"I knew you'd try something like this," Rumpelstiltskin spat at her as she came into the cabin. She wanted to scream that he hadn't left her with much choice! He was as guilty as she was, leaving on his own to find Gideon, telling her it was for the best then hiding Gideon away with the scissors! He knew her just as well as she knew him and if he'd known this would happen he shouldn't have left her behind! He knew what she'd tried to do and he was trying to stop her from keeping their son the way he was! She didn't want him to be what the Black Fairy wanted!

But she knew that none of this would have mattered. Nothing that she could say to him now would make any difference. It wasn't Rumple she had to worry about. It was her son. The look he was giving her as he clutched those scissors…once again she was clearly faced with fixing a problem that her husband had created.

"They're here because I asked them to come here. To help me stop our son from making a terrible mistake!" she explained finally turning to her boy. He had to understand that he couldn't do this.

"By cutting him from his fate?" Rumple questioned. "The very thing you gave him away to stop me from doing. That's hypocritical of you, Belle!"

His words would have cut like a knife but she was already cut. She knew what she was doing, she didn't like what she was doing but once again the choice had been removed from her hands! Why did he always have to make everything a fight?!

"Oh no, I'm not the hypocrite here," she shot back, staring him down. "You say that all you want is our son to love you, what you really want is him to be like you."

Rumple looked away from her with that guilty look in his eyes that she recognized whenever she caught him in a truth he didn't want to admit. Loving and being similar were not the same. Maybe he thought that because Bae had opposed his magic and hated him then if Gideon fought with his magic he'd love him but she knew better. He couldn't want this for their son! He couldn't!

"And Rumple, if he does this," she stressed coming closer to him but aware that everyone could still hear every word. "He will be!"

"No I won't," Gideon fought back. "What I'm doing is to bring our family together, the way it was always meant to be."

Rumple's words hadn't hurt her but Gideon's did because all at once she realized how close he already was to his father. How many times had she heard words like that from his father's mouth?

"That is exactly what…he always said," she explained glaring at her husband, hoping he'd see just how much more damage he'd already done. "It doesn't matter why you're doing it," she explained turning back to Gideon. "Killing a good person just to get what you want is never the answer!" She waited, her breath held in her lungs as she waited for her son to say something to give her more to go on so that they could figure this out together, the way a family really did instead of making decisions privately that affected one another.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, dearie." Rumple's voice was a harsh angry whisper and at first she was sure he was talking to her but when she turned she realized he was addressing someone behind her.

Zelena.

There was a squeak as she opened a small green bottle of some kind that she hadn't noticed until now. What was that?

"I wondered why you were here," Rumple commented. "Payback time, is it?"

"Perhaps…and some fun…" Zelena smiled as she let a fine black dust fall from the bottle into her hand. She wasn't entirely sure what it was but she knew that it couldn't be good. And David and Killian…they didn't look in the least bit shocked! They weren't moving to stop her or question Zelena at all!

"What's…what's going on?" she questioned looking at them. No one answered her. No one moved. Everyone just stared at each other waiting and unsure what to do. Even Gideon.

"It seems like your trust in the pirate finally failed you," Rumple answered through gritted teeth. She didn't respond only moved around to look once more at David and Hook.

"Did you know about this?" she hissed, hoping it wasn't true. Finally their looks of guilt and hesitation, all the snarling and glaring at one another seemed to make sense. There had been something going on after all she just hadn't known about it. But they did. They knew about this. She didn't know when but somehow…they'd planned this with Zelena.

"You said this was just a back-up!" Killian spat.

"Zelena don't!" David urged too half-heartedly for her taste. "You promised!"

Oh she felt like all the blood in her body had drained. There wasn't a person in this room, not a single one that she could trust and suddenly she felt like she was trapped in a den of lions with her baby. She'd brought them here! He needed to run!

"Be careful who you partner with dears!" Zelena answered.

"No!" she shrieked, but Zelena had already thrown the dust in the air. She moved to stand in front of her son but before she could there was a sharp harsh sound next to her and as she looked she saw a cone or a funnel suspended in front of Gideon. It had sucked all of whatever dust that was into it. It was protecting Gideon. She even caught a glimpse of Rumple looking shocked before Gideon lowered his hand and whatever had been in that funnel fell to the ground and disappeared before it touched anything.

"These are your good people?" Gideon questioned glancing at her out of the corner of his eye before he looked at David and Killian. "Willing to cut us down to get what they want?"

There was silence. No one answered or did anything. Not even her. She was too shocked at it all. These were her good people. Up until now.

Finally, out of the corner of her eye she saw Zelena move and knew what she was going to do before she even did it. She disappeared in a smog of green. She was a run away again. "Come on son, let's go," Rumple urged beside her.

"No," Gideon answered. "I don't need your help. I don't need anyone's help," he stated turning to her. She opened her mouth but no words came out. She didn't know what to say. "I'm going to do what I came here to do, to kill the Savior!" he hissed at Hook and David. "And I'm coming for the rest of you."

Then Gideon was gone too. In a cloud of red smoke, he vanished from the cabin.

* * *

 **I broke my own rule on this one. That is, the rule I have not to double up on interactions in one chapter but with this one I truly felt I had to. Those few beginning paragraphs at the police station, those were originally their own chapter but it would have been a chapter of about five hundred words and five hundred words does not a chapter make in this fiction. It was either I tacted it onto Zelena's chapter, or this chapter, and given the content of this chapter I felt it fit better to just put it here.**

 **Thank you Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, and Fox24 for your reviews, comments, and questions. Ready for some good news? We made it! We made it out of the mire of 6x11 and we're on to newer and brighter things...well, sort of. We made it out of the last of the chapters where Belle and Rumple consider themselves enemies on two separate teams. From here on out they are working together. And yes, it's going to be muddy and complicated at times, but I really think you are going to enjoy the development coming your way! At least I hope you do! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	14. A Matter of Trust

She glanced at Rumple and watched as his expression turned from fear to anger as he looked her over. She'd seen him look at her in a lot of ways, but disgust was a new one. In fairness, she suspected the look that she was giving him was nearly identical.

"Belle…"

"No!" she snapped at Hook. She knew that tone; it was the tone people used when they wanted to reason with others. But reasoning wasn't going to work this time around. She had trusted David and Hook to go along with this plan and help her get her son back and apparently at some point they'd joined forces with Zelena to try and destroy him. If she had done the same thing with Emma, they would be arresting her and locking her away in a jail cell. "Don't! Don't try! I don't…I don't ever want to talk to you again," she muttered before finding her way out of the cabin.

Her words and actions were childish, she knew they were, but as she wrapped her arms around herself and walked out of the cabin, she really couldn't bring herself to care. Friends that weren't friends, enemies that had been lovers, family seeking to destroy family-it was too much weight to bear alone. Was there no one who would help her? Was there even a chance at help?! Gideon was gone, and since she hadn't seen them elsewhere, she assumed that he'd taken the scissors with him. What was there left to happen except the inevitable? Could she find him? Talk to him on her own?

"Belle."

The voice of Rumpelstiltskin echoed behind her, but all she did was increase her speed. She didn't want to talk to anyone. And she especially didn't want to see the look in his eyes that she'd seen back at the cabin.

"Belle stop!"

"Leave me alone!" she shouted over her shoulder.

"Belle please!"

"I said, leave me alone!" she yelled. She turned on her heel to scream it directly at him, but nearly stumbled when she realized he was closer than she'd thought. "I don't want to talk to-"

But her words were drowned out when she felt a hand at her elbow. She saw smoke rise around her and felt the odd shifting of ground that meant that he was taking them somewhere with magic, just like he had that day in the Underworld.

"Stop doing that!" she screamed when there was solid earth under her feet again. No, not earth exactly, wood. There was the smell of the ocean with wood beneath her feet. They were inside. But the structure was just a frame; it was wooden all the way around. There were windows, and she had a feeling that if she looked out of them, she'd discover that they were in one of the buildings on the dock. On the far side was a door, exactly what she needed.

She managed a walk but was aware that her gait was only about a second from being a run as she yanked-

It didn't budge. There wasn't even a slight give to it as all doors had, as this door should have had! It was thin, it should at least sway when she-

She glanced over her shoulder at Rumpelstiltskin, standing there with his hands folded in front of him and a knowing look on his face. Her jaw was so tight her teeth ached.

"Let me go," she ordered.

"No."

"Rumpelstiltskin, let me go!"

"Not this time."

She felt a snap in her anger as she pushed against the door, more frustrated than she'd ever been and took steps in his direction.

"So what? You're going to hold me hostage, again? Keep me in this little shack until-"

"Holding you hostage seems to be the only way we can have a conversation these days."

"You think holding me hostage is going to make me want to have a conversation with you?"

"No, but I think-"

"I doubt you think much before you act."

"It's the only way I can get you to listen!" he screamed.

His voice was so loud it forced her to close her mouth and step back. She'd seen him yell before, but never at her, never like this. Screaming was usually above him, it was the kind of fighting that was unhinged and unplanned, and he never did anything that wasn't perfectly grounded. A yell like that was louder than the scream itself.

"You may not want to talk or have a conversation, but this is the only way I can get you to listen to me. Whether you like it or not you can't turn that particular sense off! You'll hear even if you want to ignore it."

She glared at him. She didn't want his words to be true, but of course, they were. Unless she wanted to throw her hands over her ears and sing a song as she's seen one of her baby cousins do when she was younger, but they both knew that she was above such behaviors. All she could do was listen, and hope that he'd release her when he'd had his say.

With a sigh she crossed her arms over her chest, the only armor she had available for whatever assault this was bound to be.

"What was that stuff they tried to use on him? Zelena…what did she try to do?" she demanded.

"Black fairy dust," he answered. "It transforms enemies into something easily disposed of…usually insects."

She felt her mouth drop open as her heart broke. They'd tried to turn her baby into a bug? Something to be stepped on and disposed of with nothing more than a tissue?

"I'm sorry I didn't take you with me this morning. But I didn't think you would trust the plans that I had-"

"Why would I?!" she snapped back before giving him the opportunity to finish. She wasn't about to let a statement like that go untouched. He said it as though it was her fault, as though not trusting his plans was some kind of flaw on her behalf. But she had trusted him. She had given over her heart and her trust so long ago…and he'd broken it. Not just once, but over and over and over again. She wasn't about to let him gloss over that fact.

"Why would I trust you?! When have you ever given me a reason to trust you? When has trusting you ever actually resulted in something positive happening? You leave me out of your plans Rumple, all the time! You leave me no other choice but to assume the worst and turn to others like Hook and the Evil Queen because the one overwhelming truth in our life has always been that I can't trust you because you don't trust me!"

It was true. He knew it was true. She could tell because he gave her that same guilty look he'd had at the cabin.

"In fairness, you have a tendency to show up when things look the worst," he finally retorted.

She snorted in response and shook her head. "You mean I have a tendency to show up before you can hide the evidence and prepare an alibi," she snapped back.

There was perfect silence between the two of them. There wasn't a sound in the little shack save for a couple of seagulls that she hadn't noticed who were nesting overhead, watching the two of them with extreme interest. The truth about fighting unhinged was that it often led to truths being uncovered, sometimes in very loud and raw ways, but they were still truths all the same. She couldn't remember a moment in recent memory where there had been more truth than what was between them now. They'd meant what they'd said to each other. She didn't trust him. And he didn't trust her. What more was there to say?

"Can I leave now?" she questioned, already taking a step away.

"I spoke with him, Belle," he breathed before she could go any farther.

"I saw that, Rumple. Now I want my turn, so if you'll let me-"

"No, no…before that, before I told him that people might come for the shears to sever him from his destiny, I spoke with him."

So they'd…they'd actually talked about something other than the shears?

"And?" she questioned hopefully. She didn't want to be hopeful, but her tone had betrayed her true self to even her. If she didn't have hope at a moment like this, then she truly had nothing.

"I don't think he wants to do this. But my mother is terrifying, she has convinced him that she has power over him, and maybe she does. But I don't think that he's doing this because he wants to. I think he's doing it because he feels that there is no other option."

No other option. Because he felt backed into a corner. With the door locked behind her and a man she'd been running from for months in the same room as her, she understood the feeling. She also knew exactly what that felt like

"So we have to show him he's wrong," she realized. "We have to show him there are other options! That this isn't the only thing he has!"

"And how do you suggest we go about that?"

"You had your chance, give me mine! Let me talk to him."

Rumple shook his head. "You think he wants to listen to you now? You just barged in with enemies prepared to kill him!"

"I didn't know they'd done that. Now I…I just need to apologize, to tell him that I thought it was best and made a mistake, to give him other options!"

"Isn't that a job best left for me?"

She let out a small laugh because they were suddenly right back to where they'd been.

"He doesn't want your help, Rumple. He said so himself and I can't trust that you won't try to help him if you go to talk to him on your own.

One or the other. Only over her dead body. No, of course she wanted privacy when she spoke with her son, but allowing that for Rumpelstiltskin meant he'd have to trust her, and he clearly didn't. And allowing him to speak to their son meant that she'd have to trust him, and she didn't either. Where did that leave them? She wasn't thrilled with the solution.

"If we stand any chance of reaching our son it's not apart," she stated unhappily.

"Well then it appears there is only one thing left to do," he muttered looking nearly as unhappy as she did. Probably for good reason. He knew that if they worked together, there were things that she wouldn't let him do. It might very well be the Underworld situation all over again.

Still, he held his hand out toward her, and she stared down at it in confusion before his voice echoed through the room.

"We can't talk to him if we don't know where he is."

So he wanted her to take his hand so they could go. Back to the shop probably, where he had magic galore that could help him track down their son. She heaved a sigh of irritation as she stared down at his hand. She knew exactly what Gideon felt, she had no options either.

So she put her hand in his own, and together they left the shack in a plume of smoke.

* * *

 **"Treatian! You said this was the end! That things were going to start getting better in this chapter! Why would you lie to me?" I didn't. I promise. This is, in my mind, the start of growth. Yes, it's a fight. But this is a couple that really needs to fight, that needs to take time to call each other out on some of their shit and work through it together instead of separately because that isn't working for them. Here you have Belle yelling at him because he doesn't trust her and never has, which is an old but very present issue for them and on Rumple's side you have him yelling at her for always running away and acting rashly. Both are fair points that need to be worked through and both are issues they are finally bringing to light. It's good. This is the start of growth; slow growth, but growth all the same. We're going to have a few of these fights before we move onto conversations. But I think it's a good thing. This chapter is easily one of my favorites in this fiction.**

 **Thank you, thank you, thank you, to Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, Fox24, and Rumbellefan for journeying with me through those chapters. I'm happy to hear that I wasn't the only one who thought that they were good and wished they had been included in the episode. I hope I did them justice. And I hope that I do justice for these next few chapters too. Movement in these chapters made some of the mechanics of these chapters difficult. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	15. A Jump Into the Chasm

Sure enough, when they emerged from their haze of magic smoke, they were at the shop. The library across the street was dark from being locked down and it was only then that she realized how late it was getting. The sun was almost down and her stomach began to growl when she realized that she hadn't had anything to eat that day, and was already going on two days without proper rest. It must have been adrenaline keeping her up. She could think of no other explanation.

"So…" she sighed releasing his hand at the first chance. "What next? We find Gideon and talk to him together?"

Rumple nodded. "It's the finding him that poses a problem."

"Well…you found him once before, can't you track him again?"

"Maybe. If he hasn't blocked my magic or shielded himself it's a simple spell, but if he has…"

He looked tired. She couldn't ever remember him looking tired. Rumple was the Dark One, he never actually needed sleep and so if he looked tired she always knew it was an emotional weariness but this…this surpassed even that. Slumped over as he was, he just looked downright exhausted.

When he didn't move from the counter and didn't finish his statement, she took a small, timid step forward and voluntarily did what she hadn't allowed herself to do in weeks. She touched his arm. Platonically, of course, but it was meant to be a gesture of comfort, and, she hoped, strength. He was tired, she was tired too, but they couldn't let it get to them. She needed him to get to their son. And unless she was mistaken, if he wanted his son, he needed her.

The simple action got his attention. His head rose just a couple of inches and he glanced down at the place her skin rested on the sleeve of his jacket.

"Let's not think about the bad until we know we have to," she half ordered, half begged of him. "Let's just do what we can until we have no more ideas left."

It wasn't exactly the easiest way to say what she was thinking. Probably because she was unwilling to really say what it was she was thinking. But she was terrified of what she was really thinking. Her heart simply felt as though it could not take any more blows and so she'd rather not rush them. Use simple magic first, then as they ruled things out they could turn to the depressing, but until they had no choice…

Rumple's eyes moved from the hand resting against his forearm to her own. He looked over his shoulder at her from beneath tired eye lids and after a few moments, he nodded. He pushed himself away from the counter as she dropped her hand and the two of them went into the back room. It almost stopped her dead. How long had it been since she'd been in the back of the shop?

It had been a while, but at the same time she wasn't surprised to see that nothing had changed. In the corner, Rumple found his black bag and extracted from it something familiar. A Tracking Spell. It wasn't the worst idea in the world, and yet it was disheartening. That wasn't exactly her first choice of spells.

"A Tracking Spell?" she questioned.

"Technically this would be a tracking potion, spells need no liquid. But in potion form they can be far more potent with one very special ingredient…"

She watched as he withdrew a small knife from the pocket of the black bag and then held his hand out. His eyes looked at the hand dangling by her side and the message was clear to her. He wanted to her hand. Blood was the special ingredient.

Immediately she wrapped her arms around her waist, hiding her hands under her elbows as she took a step back.

"Why not use a locator potion?" she argued. She didn't understand why they had to do this when Locator Potions worked much better. True, Tracking Spells, or potions, and Locator Potions were very similar, but while a Locator Potion worked like a magical GPS, leading the caster directly to the object they were searching for, Tracking Spells were more like playing a tricky game of Hot and Cold. As far as she understood a Tracking Spell would take longer than a Locator Spell.

"This will be stronger than that and…I haven't replenished the last of the stores since you used the last potion."

She felt her eyes go wide as she stared at him. "That was more than six months ago! I told you to replace them!"

"I've been a bit…distracted, lately," he argued immediately.

She opened her mouth to fight back but stopped when she realized that for one brief moment her mind had shifted and it may as well have been months ago, when they were still married, still living happily together and having a small marital spat over a chore she'd asked him to do that he hadn't done. It was no wonder they always managed to fall back into their relationship, everything else always came so naturally to them love, anger, sex…she had to resist that feeling now. It wasn't months ago. Falling back in love with him would be easy, but there was a deep chasm of lies and deceit between the pair of them now. There was no assurance this would be the time everything changed.

"Belle," he held his hand out for hers once more, the knife gleaming in the dull light of the pawn shop. "Trust me," he whispered.

She held her breath as she stared at his hand and the space between them. Odd how only a step or two could seem like miles. Yes, there was a chasm between them, but the only way to get back to one another was to jump and meet at the bottom. Years ago she would have done it in a heartbeat; now she was left staring at the other side, wondering if he'd jump too, or if he'd hang on to the other side of the cliff for dear life.

The problem was that their son was at the bottom of that chasm, waiting for both of them. She had no choice but to jump.

She took two steps forward and held out her hand for him, palm up. She held it out, but she refused to put it in his own. Instead she left it in the space in front of him so that he could grasp it. She expected he'd cut her over her palm but was surprised to find instead that he just positioned the knife over the fat part beneath her thumb and created a sliver of blood no bigger than an inch. She felt the sting that open skin left behind and bit her tongue against the small pain. He continued to hold her hand siphoning off the beading blood and adding it to a small glass plate before setting the knife aside and moving his hand, which now glowed purple, over her own. The stinging became a tingling sensation, then disappeared altogether.

"Better?" he questioned as she looked it over. She nodded and quickly removed her hand from his own, hiding it out of sight beneath her elbow again.

"Yes, thank you." Her voice was stiff with too many emotions to identify. Anger, relief, stubbornness, but she didn't want to deal with them right now, she just wanted to find their son. So it seemed did Rumpelstiltskin as he quickly pulled the dagger from his breast pocket, an act which automatically made her cringe and step away. He sliced himself carelessly across the palm and dropped the blood unceremoniously over her own. He healed himself with barely a twitch.

Afterward, he combined the blood with the potion and watched as it sizzled and smoked for a second before turning a smoky shade of gray. It was only then that she realized they needed something to place the potion over. Preferably something that belonged to him and she felt tears gather in her eyes as she considered her options.

"I…I don't think I have anything that belongs to him."

"We do," he muttered. Before she could ask what this thing was, he held out his hand, and in a cloud of smoke, a familiar stuffed animal appeared in his hand. It was a teddy bear. The same one she'd walked out of the house with last night.

"Gideon's bear?!" She quickly grabbed it out of his hand and looked it over. She remembered taking it with her on her walk last night, but now she was struggling to figure out what she'd done with it since then. She hadn't slept, and she was finding that the hours were quickly blurring together.

"You had it with you last night and I assumed-"

"It was his," she admitted. "Or meant for him at least. But he never used it. He was gone before…"

"But you consider it his. That's all the magic needs to know," he muttered taking it from her and using an eye dropped to extract some of the potion from the vile.

"But…if we had this all along then why use the blood?"

He was silent for a moment, and she watched him clench his jaw a couple of times before he muttered "The potion would have worked without it, the bear is just a precaution."

A precaution. As in something he was using in case the magic didn't work. Seeing Rumpelstiltskin look tired was one thing, watching as he admitted that he was doubting his magical skill was another thing entirely. He was unsure. And she was certain that he'd never been unsure about magic before, not that she could remember at least but this…the look on his face as he dropped the potion over the bear and let it absorb, nervous and confident and tired all at once, she knew she'd never forget that look for the rest of her life, not even if she wanted to. And, strange as it was, she didn't want to. It was-

She gasped, broken away from her thoughts by a brilliant flash of blinding blue light coming from the bear. It was working! And if the spell was working the way that she thought it did then that meant-

"He's close!" she realized, looking around the shop as if expecting him to appear in a corner. But there was no one around them.

"Not here," Rumpelstiltskin muttered. "Feel."

He pressed the bear into her hands and she nearly gasped again as she felt a wave of power roll through her. She felt it. There was a pull from the bear. It wasn't moving, it wasn't floating as it would have with a Locator Potion, but she could feel the weight of it not just in her hands, but against her soul. So long as she held this bear it was as though a string was tied to her heart and attached to Gideon. It was pulling her. It was pulling her...behind?

She turned and realized it was just to her right. Outside. She took a step and felt the pull move, just a fraction of a few degrees. It was like she was a compass, and North was her son. A few more steps and she felt the pull continue to change it's angle as the bear began to glow brighter. He was close. Very close to here! Outside. She had to go outside. It would lead her right to him.

She opened the door to go outside.

There was shouting.

* * *

 **Kinda filler chapter? This scene was very difficult to figure out because without it, it's as if everyone just said "hey why don't we take a walk and see if our crazy kids are battling each other on Main Street?!" It was incredibly awkward just having them turn up right where they needed to be and I knew I wanted to do something to put them out there. This was the best I came up with. I'm not thrilled with it, but I do like the "conversation", if you want to call it that, they had in the back coupled with the interaction. He's not sure, she's not sure, but let's have one of our old married couple fights because you didn't refill your potion supply like I told you to long ago...it was just as much fun to write as this was a bitch to figure out.**

 **Thank you Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, JudyMulder, Rumbellefan, and Fox24 for your reviews on the last chapter! Yay! You liked it, you really liked it! We're going to take this slow, it's true, but I think that slow for them as kind of been a long time coming. Thanks again! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	16. Two Households Divided

She could hear the yelling from the pawn shop. Too many things happened at once. Familiar voices shouting "Mom!" and "Emma!" Her cell phone began to ring in her pocket. She heard Emma screech "Stay back!" And somehow, in the midst of the chaos her brain had put it all together before she had.

"Rumple!" she cried dropping the bear by the door. "Rumple they're-"

She felt hands at her waist and a moment later she was no longer in the pawn shop. Her phone had stopped ringing but their voices were still shouting. They were outside, standing on the sidewalk just a stones throw from Granny's where she was certain Rapunzel would have seen what was going on. There, in the middle of the street, she could see them all. Henry, David, Regina, Killian, and Robin! They were all staring at the middle of the street. Emma was there. Matched against a hooded figure with a sword in his hand. Their son.

"NO!" she breathed, off and running before she realized there was anything that could be done! She was aware of Rumple next to her, that it was the first time she'd actually seen him run, but she kept her gaze on Gideon! It couldn't end like this! She couldn't let him!

"Gideon, wait!" she heard Rumple shout as they both stood at the circle watching the spectacle.

"You don't have to do this!" she cried. But she wasn't sure who she was talking to. Gideon? Emma? The ones she had called family across the street?

"It's okay!" Emma called out to them. "I'm not going to let him hurt anyone." Her stomach flipped over. She was afraid of that statement! Because while she understood Emma didn't want to let him bring harm, she was fearful of what she'd have to do in order to ensure it.

But before she could open her mouth and voice anything, she was suddenly aware of the fact that she couldn't move.

Her heart began to pound with fear.

It was just as it had been a year ago when she'd stood in this very same place with Neal over her shoulder and been paralyzed, unable to do anything except for breath and watch the man she loved sacrifice himself so that his father would never hurt another soul ever again!

Her heart raced as she fought the magic as best she could, she tried to walk, to move, to scream, to wiggle her pinky!

But she couldn't. She could do nothing but watch.

She looked to her left, saw the crowd on the opposite corner and realized they were just as immobile as she was.

She looked to Emma and Gideon and saw a sight that was indescribable. For the first time she knew what it was to be neither happy nor sad. Emma could move! But so could Gideon and he was pointing the sword in his hand right at her. This was a showdown like they'd never seen before, one to rival Regina and Zelena without a doubt! Both, she was sure, were strong. In a heartbeat either could kill one another, Gideon with the sword, Emma with magic.

There was no noise. There was no time. There was nothing but these two standing in the street facing their destiny. She couldn't bear the thought of Gideon losing, but she couldn't stand the thought of him winning either.

She watched. But Emma did nothing as Gideon advanced. Her arm was out, her hand was open as if deciding which spell to cast, it was even shaking with too much effort…but step after step nothing happened.

They were speaking to one another, but the words were muffled, lost to the chilly night air. The words were not for the others, only the two of them. A private conversation she desperately wanted to hear!

Suddenly she saw a terrible sight. There was light shining on Emma's hand. A bright white light and she didn't quite know what she intended to do with it, but she knew that she'd seen her use it before on powerful beasts. Would Gideon stand any chance?

She would have gasped but she couldn't, just watched as light exploded into the air and Gideon lost his footing and flew backwards to land almost at their feet. The sword he'd held was knocked free from his grasp and lay shattered in pieces by his side. Yet again she tried to break herself free and get to her boy, to see if he was okay, to try and talk to him. But her body wouldn't move no matter how much she begged it, no matter how much her mind plead with Gideon to release them and allow them to help!

Emma ran toward them, toward Gideon. She held her breath as she watched the Savior grab a piece of the fragmented iron, straddle her son and hold the tip to his neck. She felt a sob in the back of her throat as she prepared for what she could never prepare for. How could this happen? How could she watch her husband and her son die in the same exact spot? How was she supposed to live through it?! She loved them both so much…

"I'm still going to kill you," Gideon dared from where he was pinned beneath Emma. Oh, how different both deaths were. How shameful that she'd harmed the most precious thing she'd ever been given!

"Please."

The word was just a breath, a small sound that she couldn't even be sure she had said, but when Emma looked up she realized it wasn't her who said it. Small as it had been, the request from Rumpelstiltskin next to her cut through the air and shook Emma enough to stop.

"He's my son," Rumple muttered for them both.

From where he lay she saw her son glance upward, toward the pair of them. "I don't need your help!" he exclaimed loudly, then, before Emma could act or react, before Rumple could say another, before Gideon could do anything, there was swirl of amber magic and Gideon was gone.

She felt herself sway. She felt the air leave her body, she felt everything all at once as she looked at the place her son had nearly been murdered and at the woman he had tried to kill. She looked at what her actions had brought upon Storybrooke as Killian stepped forward to hug Emma and Henry whooped and hollered in excitement. She watched as David reached out and hugged his child, safe and sound and good in his arms.

Then she looked at Rumpelstiltskin and slowly staggered away.

* * *

 **Sorry, there are always a couple of these kind of chapters in each fiction. You know the ones, chapters that just don't translate well from screen to page. Maybe you disagree, but this is one of those in my mind. It's just kinda "meh" to me. The real stuff that does translate well is coming up next!**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, Fox24, and TamaraBMarshall for your comments on the last chapter! Happy to hear so many are enjoying this and the direction it's going in so far. Hopefully, we can keep it going! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	17. A Time To Undo What Was Done

She staggered away from the scene of the crime feeling like she was as broken as her once beloved chipped cup and held together only with a thin layer of clear tape. She walked on. To where? She didn't know. Why? She didn't know that either. She only knew that her legs were carrying her far away from the place that felt like death and destruction. Her body hurt. Her head hurt. But her soul ached.

Emma had almost succeeded today. If Rumple hadn't called out when he did she might have killed her son whether she meant to or not in the heat of battle!

But it wasn't entirely unjustified.

If Emma hadn't fought him off she had no doubt that her son would have taken that sword and run Emma through, killing her in the process.

And she didn't know what to do about it! She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to wrap her son in her arms and protect him, keep him safe from everyone that was threatening his very existence, Emma, Killian, David…

But protecting him meant harboring the villain of the tale. In another place and another time she would have been working with them to find and destroy her son, and now she couldn't even stand to think that thought. She wanted so badly to go back and beg Emma and David and Killian all over again not to hurt her child but how was she supposed to tell them not to fight for their lives?! How was she supposed to stop her son when she didn't know who he was or where?! He was an adult. She could make excuses for him, but he wasn't the baby she'd held in her arms a day ago. Now he was tortured and mistreated and damaged and-

She fought to catch her breath as the pressure of the world began to overwhelm her. There was something hard and solid in front of her. She draped herself over it as she fought to catch her breath and just breathe. It was a struggle. The air was cool, but she felt hot. Thick teardrops fell from her eyes, and it was so quiet that she could clearly hear the plops on the pavement below her.

Stone. Not pavement. Stone.

When she opened her eyes and finally took in her surroundings she saw just where her legs had carried her and like a crazed woman began to laugh. The well. She'd been so busy crying she hadn't noticed that she'd left the safety of the town, hadn't noticed the dirt beneath her feet or the forest around her. She hadn't even known that she was coming here, the Wishing Well. The same well that Rumple had brought magic back, the same well she'd been married before, the same well she'd come to tell Rumpelstiltskin that she didn't want to be in a relationship with him until she had discovered herself before getting pregnant barely twenty-four hours later. Some wishing well.

She straightened her back, breathing deep, trying desperately to get a hold of herself when she noticed just to the left of her a large bronze coin. A Drabloon, a common coin from the Enchanted Forest, laid out for her as if someone had come to make a wish and then decided otherwise and just left it there. She picked it up and considered making a wish and tossing it in for just a second, but stopped before she could. She was probably better off not wishing, especially not at this well. Though she knew that the well was known for returning things that were lost she felt that it had only ever taken from her. Rumple had brought back magic, and in so doing she'd lost him before she really had a chance. They'd been married here, and their confessions were probably the last truths they'd told to each other. The last time she was here she wanted so desperately to tell him that it wasn't over but that she needed to protect herself by learning who she was but her words got lost and it had gone all wrong. This well was no lucky charm for her. It was a curse.

She held tight to the coin in her hands, letting herself hunch over the well as she gathered the stray thoughts from the corners of her mind. What she wouldn't give for just a few moments of peace! What she wouldn't give for this well to work and allow her to turn the clock back and make a few different choices. She wondered if she'd still be here.

Her cheeks were still scratchy from where the tears had dried and left the salt behind when she heard the footsteps that told her she wasn't alone. Ordinarily she might have screamed or been nervous or turned around immediately to judge what kind of danger she was in, but she recognized the footsteps instantly even muffled as they were in the dirt. The weight behind them, the gate, they were the only footsteps she knew like that. Though she knew that it probably should have had her feeling like she was in danger, she was honestly too numb to feel anything other than his presence behind her. She should have known Rumpelstiltskin would find her. He'd never needed that bracelet at all.

"Making a wish?" he questioned softly, as if he was afraid he might disturb the sanctity of the quiet around them, or perhaps just make her bolt again. What was it he'd told her on the dock? She never held still long enough for him to have a conversation with her? Given her instincts, it was probably true.

She let out a chuckle. A few hours ago, she would have thought it was odd or maybe even strange how well he knew her. At the moment, she knew there was no one who knew her better than he did and it didn't seem to bother her.

"Better not," she answered, trying to get her throat to work the right way. It was difficult to do when her nose was still stuffy from crying. "My hopes and plans don't turn out like I want them to," she joked finally looking over her shoulder at his figure. "No matter what I do, who I trust…"

"I understand the feeling," he muttered moving beside her.

"Do you?!" she wondered aloud. After everything that had happened she found it difficult to believe. One poor choice on her part and he'd gotten everything he'd wanted. "Because clearly you wanted to keep him tied to this horrible fate and you succeeded."

"I wanted his life to take its natural course," he argued immediately. Again, that was difficult to believe. She'd been so busy worrying about Gideon over the last few weeks and every single worry she'd had revolved around the man next to her. What he'd done, what he'd do…odd how it was her decision in the end that brought them here. But it did seem like if he'd wanted his son's life to take it's "natural course" then he wouldn't have tried to get those shears and cut him from what was natural.

Beside her Rumpelstiltskin matched her position, leaning against the well and gazing in just as she was.

"He still has the power to change his choices…like the Savior's doing." Yes, but that was of no help to him. If he'd used those scissors on Gideon what would he be now? Better or worse than this? "But using the shears would have robbed him of that. And yes!" he snapped quickly, before any words of accusation could come out of her mouth. "Yes, I was going to use them on him before…but I was wrong."

Despite the confirmation of the terrible thing that she'd just heard she felt a smile tug at the corner of her mouth. Rumpelstiltskin admit that a plan was wrong? That seemed contradictory to everything that she knew. But so was Gideon. She was back to the same old question. If his father had his way, he wouldn't have any choices in who he was. Now that she had her way he was this. She almost wished that he didn't have the choice to choose. Choosing meant he could choose wrong.

"And you think he'll make the right choices now?" she asked, fighting back tears. She rid the thought that this was all Rumpelstiltskin's doing from her mind and was quick to correct herself because she couldn't place this on him. She'd made the choice to send Gideon away. No matter what she'd intended, the only one responsible for what he was right now was her.

"No," Rumple answered after a few seconds of pondering. "But I hope he still may."

She barely heard his last words. She had to turn away from him for that moment, to blink more tears out of her I eyes.

It was not the answer that she wanted or hoped to hear. She wanted to hear that he would, that he was strong, that he could make the right choice! But Rumple's words were true, she knew it after watching him with Emma tonight. She was responsible. She'd never dreamed this was what would come out of a wish to keep her son safe from his father.

"I know you don't believe that's what I want Belle, but it's true." Was it? It was difficult to tell if he was telling the truth when most of their lives he'd only ever lied to her. And this "truth"…it seemed a little too far-fetched. Gideon making the right choices? Did he understand what that meant for Gideon now? Did he understand what it meant for him?

"When Baelfire rejected my magic, I respected him. I just wasn't brave enough to follow him." So it was a question of bravery now, was it? She didn't know if she could believe that after Merida and the bear. He could be brave for others. She knew he could even before that, he just…he couldn't do it if his power stood in the way. "My whole dark life, I've sought out those who have light…like you."

"So you don't want him to kill Emma?" she pressed. Because killing the Savior seemed like something he would be in support of, especially after all that family had put him through. It wasn't who she was or what she did that would make the Dark One want her destruction; it was what she was. Light beyond measure. Light powerful enough to crush the Darkness. Light powerful enough to kill his son. Attempting to murder or hurt his loved ones in the past was never something anyone seemed to recover from. Her father, Gaston, Hades, even Pan…there was a long trail of bodies and blood of the people who had tried to hurt her behind him.

"No I don't," he answered surprisingly. "That would be an irrational act of someone so blind with pain they think they're reaching for the cure…and in fact it's just more poison. I know…I've done it myself. Frankly, I suppose I'm addicted to it, but I don't want it for my son."

His words were upsetting. Especially when she thought of them in relation to Gideon, how desperate he must be, how tortured to desire something like this without seeing the reaction it would have on his soul. But…

The words were also hopeful. Not for their son, not entirely. They were hopeful because he wasn't just applying them to their son, but himself as well. If what he was saying was true he recognized the irrationality of his own actions; he recognized that instead of making things better, as he so often hoped he would, he often made things worse. But then why do them? That was always going to be her question, the thing that she always came back to time and time again! If he knew that he made things worse, that his plans weren't always in the best interest of others why do them?!

But that wasn't the focus of this conversation, and his actions weren't what had brought them here it was her action that brought them here. And the choices her son had made to survive the fire she'd carelessly thrown him into.

He wanted more for his son than what he had. She wanted more for him than what she had as well. She wanted him to be loved, by a mother and father who would care for him, who could let him choose what he wanted. She wanted to raise their son together without being at each other's throats every night. She didn't want the life she was living now for her son. She wanted a life she'd always wished for, a life she'd never had. Gazing into the black depths below she fingered the Drabloon still in her hand. A well that could return what was lost…no point in worrying if she was wishing for something she never had.

With a deep breath and a shaking hand, she closed her eyes and pictured life as she wanted it. Life without villains. Life without complications. Life without the ever-present threat of Dark Magic. She pictured a life where she woke up in the morning in her husband's embrace, confident he'd rested by her side all night long. She pictured a life where the most difficult choice she had to make was what to have for dinner. She imagined a life where her son sat at their kitchen table doing homework before Neal came throught he door to take Gideon to soccer practice. She saw the four of them smiling at dinner; her family safe, her family whole. She wished for the impossible on purpose. Then flipped her coin and let her vision fall into the waters below with an invisible splash never to be seen or heard of again.

Her hopes and dreams falling into the depths of the waters, she cast a sideways glance at Rumple and felt a pang in her chest. She hoped her actions could be undone because if they couldn't be she wasn't quite sure how she'd ever live with herself. She didn't know how her heart could ever bleed so much for people who could want so much evil, first Rumple and now her son…but it did. So, as long as they were making confessions…

"I protected him…even knowing what he wanted to do," she muttered. She didn't regret what she'd done, but somewhere in the world of black and white, she knew her actions were less than innocent when she'd gone to David and Killian. It had been less about protecting Emma, helping the hero, and more about shielding her son, the villain. That was wrong to the world, but knowing that, she knew she would have made the same choice over and over again. "It can be easy to rationalize doing the wrong thing, can't it?"

For the first time in a long while she looked at him. Not just a glance or a stare. She found his eyes and held his gaze. Suddenly she understood what it was that made him always avoid her eyes. It was guilt. Being guilty and admitting to someone you were guilty…it was the worst feeling in the world.

"Indeed it can," he nodded finally breaking his contact to stare into the well. It was easy to rationalize it, but she knew that she'd do it again and again if it meant protecting her son. She knew that she'd place herself between Emma and Gideon and hope for Emma's demise if it meant her son would live. But would it make any difference? What her heart wanted to believe was different than fact, and she'd been ignoring her heart and listening to fact with Rumple for so long that she was an expert at it now. The fact was Emma's magic was stronger than Gideon's. And she had no magic at all. She could place herself between the two of them a million times, but it would never change the outcome.

"Is it too late for us to help him?" she questioned as she felt her chin tremble at what she could not stop. She'd never felt so torn between good and evil in all her life! But if she was really going to pursue helping her son then she knew what she had to ask. "You must have some plan, some trick…"

"I'm sorry," he answered.

She looked away so he wouldn't see her tears of disappointment. The one who always had the answers and the plan had neither. Emma was on the side of protecting the town and her own life. Her family would be making plans to save Emma and see Gideon as a monster, one that she'd helped to create. What as she supposed to do now?

"But, if there is anything we can do to help him," he whispered rearranging himself so that he was closer to her, facing her with his hand on her elbow. "Perhaps that's something we should do together."

She sniffled as she looked over at him. She wasn't sure she really believed the words coming out of his mouth at the moment. He wanted to work together? He actually wanted her to nag him about his Dark Magic and insist he was wrong and fight him tooth and nail on his plans? Wasn't that what had happened last time they'd tried to work together for the sake of their son?

"And not just for us, but for everyone," he added quickly, making her feet shift so much she was glad she was still leaning on the stone well. If she wasn't, she might have toppled over from disbelief. This wasn't like him at all. Working together for the sake of others was a heroic action. Could he do that? Could he put aside his Darkness and let it work for the Light has Merlin had predicted?

"You heard our son," he explained as if he could hear her thoughts. "I fear if we fail…war is coming to Storybrooke."

* * *

 **It's been an interesting thing in this series that sometimes the most difficult things to write become my favorite things. That wish...I agonized over it for weeks because we never did find out what she was wishing for. I tried hard to find something that she could wish for and then have at the end of all of this, and it was only then that I stumbled upon her wishing for the impossible on purpose and fell in love with it. I do think one of the flaws with Belle is that she has hopes and dreams that are impossible and has difficulty accepting that. So with this wish, to me, it almost says that she is moving on from that. "Here is the thing I want, I understand now I can't have it all, let's do what we can to make a life out of what we do have." That is flexibility I think she has needed. But still, her wish, her dream, impossible as it is, has become my favorite part of this chapter. It's an iconic moment, I hope I haven't let you down.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973 and Fox24, for your reviews on the previous chapter! Great news, we are officially leaving 6x11 and moving on to 6x12! We made it! In all of Moments 6x11 does not have the most chapters but it's certainly in the top 5 and it has certainly seemed that way, at least to me. But up next, on to 6x12! (Which essentially picks up right here so...on we go!) Peace and Happy Reading!**


	18. A Starting Place

War was coming to Storybrooke. What awful words. What terrifying words! But it wasn't war that taunted her, for she had already seen plenty of wars in her lifetime. It was the knowledge that this time the offending force was her son. She'd never been on the opposing side of a war before. She'd been a defender before, but she'd never actually been on the side of those who were attacking!

But this was so much more complicated than war! War was clear, black and white, from her perspective this was anything but clear! She wasn't on her son's side, she didn't want him to kill Emma! But she did want to be on his side. She wanted to talk to him, to help him. She wanted to stop all of this. She wasn't quite sure who's side that put her on.

"What do we do?" she asked, looking over and meeting her husband's gaze. "How do we stop this?"

He shook his head. "I don't know yet," he whispered before sighing and looking into the well beside him. "But I know the answers aren't here, Belle. Not this time. Come with me?" he questioned suddenly straightening up and holding his hand out for her. "Let's find a place to start. Together."

How ironic? She knew what he meant, she knew what he was really talking about but the way he was holding out his hand, the way he'd talked with her and used the pair of them working together…

She didn't trust him. Not anymore. Distrust came easily to her these days when it came to the man by her side and this conversation didn't change that. But she couldn't help the voice in the back of her head that told her this was the place to start, here and now, with that hand. It was like suddenly she'd gone back in time and been granted her wish. She was standing at the well with her hero, wondering if she should take his hand and go forward or not. Her heart said 'yes' but her head had screamed 'run' and she'd listened. But now…she wasn't about to make the same mistake twice, no matter how loud the voice in her head shouted. Arguably that was what led them here.

With a resolved sigh she nodded her head and stood. The moment she placed her hand in his own the scream in her head died. He helped her down off the step of the well and back onto the forest floor. Yet again, like on their wedding night, she had the wrong footwear for a hike in the woods and after a couple of steps of stumbling along in the dark she instinctively reached out and put her arm through the crook of his elbow. She was quiet for a moment, they both were as she felt the muscles in his arm tense to support her weight and realized that she couldn't remember the last time she'd done this. She couldn't remember the last time they'd walked together arm in arm, though she knew it had been frequent for a long time. She'd always liked it. He had a way of making her feel safe even if she wasn't and at the moment, as the chilly night began to creep in on them she felt herself draw closer to him, and the heat that radiated from him into her was comfortable. A united front.

How long since they had been united in anything? Beyond tonight of course. Beyond Gideon and Emma. Beyond her family and Emma's and…

She nearly stumbled over the thought, but actually did stumble over a small stone as she recalled what she'd seen tonight and one detail stood out far more than it had moments ago. Beside her Rumpelstiltskin flexed his arm to help keep her on her feet and she came to a stop.

"Rumple…was that…was that Robin Hood standing with Regina?" she questioned, looking over at him.

In the still of the night he stared back at her, looking pensive as if just considering if for the first time as well.

"How-"

They both jumped at a shrill sound coming from inside her pocket. She looked wildly around for a moment before disengaging from her husband to snatch her ringing cell phone from her pocket. She wasn't sure why she thought it might be Gideon, she just knew that she did until she looked down to see "Storybrooke Public Library" and her hopes were easily washed away.

"Rapunzel," she muttered in explanation. "I forgot she was watching Granny's to tell me when Emma was back." So why was she calling from the library? "Rapunzel-"

"Belle!" Rapunzel hissed into the phone before she could get two words out. "I don't know where you are, but I need you at the library right now."

Her stomach turned over. She'd heard Rapunzel speak in a lot of tones before, but this was entirely different. There was fear in her voice.

"Rapunzel? What's happened?"

"Just get here as fast as you can. There is something you need to see."

"What-"

But there was a click before she could ask or answer anything more. The line was dead.

She felt her eyes go big as she looked up at Rumpelstiltskin. "That was Rapunzel!" she explained. "There's something wrong at the library, we need to-"

He didn't wait for any further explanation, she just saw his arm move and before she could really prepare for it she saw they were standing once more on Main Street. She couldn't think to be upset that he'd used magic just turned around to see the library and-

The tower! The clock face was broken! Not just cracked, but completely obliterated. At her feet lay shards of glass and metal, like it had the day that Zelena had broken it. And Rapunzel…the lights were off inside the library. Ignoring the mess she went to pull on the door and found it locked. She dug inside her coat for her keys but came up empty handed.

"I-I-I'm locked out!"

Once more the world faded in a haze of red and when it reappeared she felt the ground beneath her feet had shifted again. Now they were inside the library. She glanced over at Rumpelstiltskin as her bearings returned and he shrugged saying simply "I didn't want to startle her if something was wrong" an explanation for why he hadn't brought them inside the library in the first place. She swallowed and looked around. It was quiet. Quiet in an eerie way. Rapunzel was here, she could feel it! It was too quiet for no one to be here and only seconds ago she'd called from inside so…

Her eyes landed on the office door, firmly closed when she usually kept it open. If there was a problem Rapunzel wouldn't fight, not unless she had to, she'd make herself as safe as possible and then wait for help to arrive, and there was a phone inside…

She strode to the circulation desk, Rumple calling after her the farther away from him she moved, retrieved the key to the offices from its hiding place and finally pushed the door open.

"Oh thank God!"

She nearly screamed when Rapunzel moved out of the shadows to her right! It was only Rapunzel quickly putting her hand over her mouth that stopped her.

"He might still be here!" she hissed.

"Who?" she whispered back clutching her arms.

"A man, he was dressed all in black, I saw him get out of the elevator, but I didn't see him leave."

Dressed all in black. She glanced over her shoulder at Rumple, and she knew he was thinking the same thing she was.

"Gideon," she whispered.

Beside her, Rapunzel gave a small gasp of surprise at Rumpelstiltskin, but she ignored it. Rumple stared at her, and somehow she knew his gaze to mean she and Rapunzel should stay where they were. She nodded, and he disappeared into another room.

"Was that him? Was that Gideon? What is he doing here?"

She quickly pushed Rapunzel into the office and down into the chair at the desk. She wanted to believe it was Gideon, she wanted to believe that with her whole heart because that might mean that if he was here he'd come looking for her, to talk with her. But history taught her that she couldn't be stupid. There were lots of dangers in this town, lots of men dressed in black, she couldn't assume it was her son.

"Rumple is looking now. If he's still here, he'll find him."

"Rumple! What are you doing with him again?" Rapunzel demanded suddenly looking her dead in the eye. "I thought-"

"We were just…Rapunzel, what happened here?" she urged changing the subject simply because she wasn't prepared to answer questions of that nature. "Tell me what you saw."

Rapunzel didn't seem to notice the shift in conversation. Instead, she looked around the shadowed room and sighed. She touched her hand to her head as if it would help her collect her thoughts then let her head give a small shake.

"I-I don't really know, you know, it all happened so fast. I…I came back here from Granny's, I was just going to pick up a few things and go to Flynn's."

"Flynn wasn't here?"

She shook her head. "No, he…he went home to check on his sister. And I wasn't really worried, you know! I locked the door behind me, just like I always do when I'm here alone. Belle, I'm sure I locked it!" she stressed suddenly. "I don't know why I wouldn't, but I don't know how he would get in if I-"

She squeezed her friends hands and kneeled down next to her, so they were eye to eye. "You must have," she assured her. The door was locked when we arrived. He must have used magic to get it."

"And it must have been right after I got into the stairwell because the library was quiet when I got here but when I got up to the apartment, I heard a noise, something humming then like gears and cogs grinding."

She nodded. She knew that sound all too well. "The elevator."

"That's what I figured! But you always told me not to go up there. I just figured it was some kids. I grabbed the skillet off the oven, came downstairs to get the elevator back and trap them up there for Flynn to come and talk to them when I heard a loud boom, and something shook the library. I heard a noise outside a second later, and when I pulled down the blinds to look I saw the glass and metal, and I thought-"

"It was the clock face," she confirmed for her. "Someone broke it."

"Well, it sounded like they set off dynamite from the sounds that I heard. Kids or not I just decided it was too much for me and I locked myself in the office. I grabbed the phone to call the police but then…I heard the humming and the gears grinding again. I didn't have a great view, but I did my best to look out the office windows and see…if it was kids I could have handled it or called the police but-"

"It wasn't children." Both she and Rapunzel turned to look at the door where Rumpelstiltskin stood once more. He flipped the lights on, a sure sign it was safe, and they squinted as their eyes adjusted.

"No," Rapunzel went on. "It was a man. Like I said, long black clothes like a robe or a cloak, his hair looked dark, but it was also dark so it might have been sandy or blonde. Beyond that…I didn't really get a good look at him; I was afraid he'd see me and…he looked so much like the witch…like my fear, when I was in that tower, for a moment, I thought…"

She thought she was back there in that tower. Or maybe that her fear had come back to haunt her. "Did you call Flynn?" she asked squeezing her hand.

Rapunzel shook her head. "I was just about to when you got here…both of you," she glanced over at the doorway where she knew Rumple was standing with suspicion. She hadn't expected her to show up with him.

"Belle."

Before she could explain anything to her friend her husband's voice called to her from over her shoulder. His look demanded she come to him. His presence told her already what she suspected he wanted to tell her. She gave Rapunzel's hand one final squeeze then found the phone and forced it onto her lap.

"Call Flynn," she whispered. "We're just out here if you need us." She nodded slowly and Belle made her way out into the lobby.

* * *

 **Rapunzel's back! Yay! But not in a happy go lucky kind of way. I really hated the fact that they had Gideon explode the clock face and then never came back to that in the series. Anyone notice that? In fact, in the next episode, the clocktower is whole again! Why would you do that A &E? Why? Also, the Robin thing...did anyone catch it a few chapters back. Belle does in fact note that Robin is among those who are there on Main Street when Emma and Gideon are fighting, but she doesn't really "notice" it. I figured, considering what was going on, it wasn't a good time for her to notice. After all, Robin has just died and she was under the sleeping curse when he did. I figured that all things considered Robin would be one she might just kind of skip over at a time like that without really saying "wait! That was Robin! He's dead! WTF!" Now, for those same reasons I just mentioned, it's going to be a while before she gets the full story of Robin. Obviously, here she really doesn't get an answer because before she can something completely new pulls her away and on to the next important thing. And seeing as how she's kind of on the "outs" with the Charming family, it's unlikely Emma will tell her. And seeing as how Regina is busy with Robin it's unlikely she will tell her. So...conclusion...sorry, but she's not really going to figure out what's going on with him until after he's gone. Don't expect any Belle/Robin chapters. Sorry. I would have loved to, but it just didn't seem believable at this point in time. Gideon kind of takes up her entire time in this fiction.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973 and Fox24, for your reviews on the last chapter. I'm really happy that "the wish" went over well and enjoyed the conversation around that. While I have you, I would like to pre-apologize for the next two chapters which are ridiculously short. I had wanted to make all three chapters one but when I began to write there was a lot of movement and conversations and it was just too much for one chapter. I had hoped to break it up into two chapters but that too seemed to be impossible after a while and so three it was. My apologies, sometimes this happens. Peace and Happy Reading.**


	19. Realistic Realizations

"It's him, isn't it?" she questioned the moment she and Rumple found a small space outside the office door to talk in with whispers.

"We can't prove that," he whispered back. "It could be any number of people wandering around Storybrooke-"

"In black cloaks?!" she finished bluntly. She appreciated that he was trying to lessen the blow, but they were beyond that, especially when this didn't seem so bad to her. "He was here Rumple. Maybe…maybe he came looking for me, maybe he wanted to talk to me."

"Belle…we have even less proof of that than his presence here."

"But maybe he got upset when he couldn't find me and…" she stopped before she could go on, the look on his face demanded it. He didn't think that scenario was likely at all. The problem was that she couldn't think of any scenario that was likely. Blowing through the glass in the clock tower was such a childish, rebellious thing to do. If not in anger than why?

Suddenly Rumple's eyes darted to the office where they heard Rapunzel muttering, probably on the phone with Flynn.

"You're close," he muttered looking back at her.

She felt caught off guard for a moment; she hadn't exactly expected a conversation revolving around how close she was to her best friend in the midst of all this. Did he even know about her? She'd hired her while he was away in New York, did he know who she was?

"It's Rapunzel, I hired her when-"

"After Ruby left, while I was away, you've told me before, but you're close, more than co-workers...she's your friend?"

So she had told him, and he'd listened. Ordinarily, she'd give him credit for that, but with how many times they were together then apart it was getting difficult to remember what they said to one another. But the question about Rapunzel…it wasn't hard to answer.

"Yes, she's my friend, why does that matter?"

He let out a sigh, and she saw a small muscle twitch at the corner of his mouth. He was unhappy? Why? Was he jealous of-

"She shouldn't stay here, right now. It isn't safe."

Obviously. "Well, she lives some of the time with Flynn and his sister, not here, they-"

"I meant she shouldn't be in town, somewhere she's easily spotted or can be associated with you. Neither should her husband and his sister."

"Flynn's not her husband, and…what are you talking about?!"

"It isn't safe for them here, not with Gideon."

She shook her head in disbelief. He was usually so logical and rational, but this just didn't make any sense to her.

"I'm Gideon's mother; I'm on his side, I'm trying to help him!"

"He doesn't see it that way Belle," he argued back quickly. She wanted to fight back, to argue at those words, but she could see the emotion in his eyes, and it silenced her all too easily. "Our son is strong and powerful, and his magic is dark. Those in the darkness don't always see those in the light as being helpful, in fact, the more they try to pull into the light, the more of a threat they become."

"But I'm his mother."

"Yes, you are, and for that Gideon will fight his urges to fight against you or harm you directly, but Belle…we can't be sure he won't use those close to you to force your hand, to stop threatening what he believes is his purpose."

"To kill Emma."

Rumple nodded. "They can't be here. The truth is we don't know who our son is right now, how he thinks, how he reacts. If he finds out that the two of you are close, there is no telling what he might do to them. Erring on the side of caution in this situation might save lives."

She felt her eyes fill with tears and fought to hold them in because she was sick of crying and not getting anything done! And she was sick of hearing about all the bad things her son could potentially do. She was tired of hearing about what a monster she'd made but loved too much to give up on.

"What am I supposed to tell her? Or them?"

Rumpelstiltskin paused in thought, looking almost as lost as she was before he came up with a suggestion. "I own a cluster of cabins in the woods. I can have an associate meet them in the woods and let them into one. I'll have your father brought there in the hour and anyone else who might need hiding."

She shook her head. The dwarves, Granny, Snow, David…she couldn't hide everyone. She wasn't even sure that she had to hide everyone he was talking about.

"I haven't spoken to my father in a month. Not since we've been back from the Underworld."

"It's just a precaution." She had to let out a little snort at the irony of it all. Rumpelstiltskin was more willing to hide her father than she was…there was something very odd happening here.

But still, her original question persisted. How was she supposed to-

Suddenly there was a loud bang at the front door, and she felt Rumpelstiltskin push her back as he stepped in front of her before-

"Rapunzel?!" Flynn called from the other side of the door. She felt a tingling sense of relief spread through her body as the adrenaline began to uselessly evaporate. She hadn't unlocked the door.

"Rapunzel!" he barely had time to call a second time before her friend came running out of the office, unbolted the door to let him in, and threw herself into his arms. He held her so tight that her feet dangled over the floor. "Are you okay? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she heard her mutter into his neck. "I'm okay."

He set her down after that but seemed unwilling to let her hands go. Instead, he held her tight to his chest before looking around and nearly jumping when he saw her…or rather who was standing in front of her.

"Dark One…not what I expected."

"It's fine, Flynn," she muttered stepping out from behind him. "He's supposed to be here."

Flynn nodded, looking just as skeptical and disbelieving as Rapunzel had a few moments ago, then turned back to Rapunzel and gently pushed the hair out of her face.

"What happened?"

She took a breath and began to tell him the same tale she'd told her only moments ago. Belle didn't listen. Just looked up at her husband with questioning eyes.

"What am I supposed to tell them?" she wondered out loud once more. But the Master of Solitude didn't have a response for her. That was going to have to be up to her.

* * *

 **And there it is. Something I was asked way back within the first chapters was how I was going to deal with Rapunzel in this fiction and I just couldn't bear to say it at that moment. I love Rapunzel, I love her spunk and vigor and everything she does for Belle as a friend and believe me when I say that I really wanted her around in this fiction. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was going to have to find a way to excuse her and in the end it kind of came obviously to me. Manipulation 101, when you don't want to harm an individual, how do you get them to fall in line? You threaten those they love. Rumple's logic for the moment is dead on. Without any knowledge about Gideon they have to assume the worse. If he won't hurt Belle, then he'd get to those close to her. Thus the exit I was seeking out for Rapunzel. Why? She is Belle's best friend, but that also means that she can become something of a safety net and I didn't want to focus on any relationship in this fiction that wasn't Rumple and Belle or Gideon and Belle. She and Rumple need to rebuild their relationship from the ground up and I didn't feel Rumple was going to be able to to that with Rapunzel and Flynn hanging around, and I didn't feel that Belle was going to be able to do that with her safety net just below her feet. She needs that net gone so that she can learn to put her trust in Rumple again. So, with everything going on and the incident with the library, I took the opportunity to send her away. Again, not an easy decision, this is one of my favorite relationships in Moments, but I felt it had to be done.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, and Fox24, for your reviews on the last chapter. Truly, I do appreciate all your comments! They always give me something to look forward to and I love hearing your thoughts. I'm curious what you'll think of these next few chapters. I said Rapunzel was going, but I think we'd all be a bit sad if Rapunzel went off without a fight...right? Peace and Happy Reading!**


	20. Dealing With Friends

"No," Rapunzel stated outright as she sat up in her apartment with Flynn. Rumple had been kind enough, or maybe just smart enough, to know that going to fix the clock and making arrangements for Rapunzel as well as her father was a much better idea than going to talk with the pair of them. She didn't know how to tell her friend she wanted her to leave, so the news had come out in probably the worst of ways: blunt, all logic, no emotion. Rapunzel's reaction was nearly as blunt.

"I won't do it, you can't make me," she finished crossing her arms over her chest and her legs as well.

"Rapunzel…"

"I won't do it Flynn!" her friend screamed at her boyfriend, launching herself off of the couch and into the kitchen. She was standing about as far away from them as she could without leaving the room. "I won't do it…I won't go back to being a damsel in distress again, hiding in a tower where fear is my only captor...I won't do it!"

"It's not a tower. It's a luxury cabin!"

"It's a prison!" she snapped at Flynn before turning her glare on her. "And I can't believe you would ask me to do this…of all people."

She had expected something of this reaction. In fact, she couldn't rightly say that she blamed her for it. Given their history, she would much rather Rapunzel stay and work with her and Rumple, not to mention create a barrier between the two of them, but she knew that Rumple had a point. His argument had been logical, and they both knew it. Rapunzel could not stay, and she had to understand that.

"If I had a choice-"

"You do have a choice!" she screamed stepping forward. "I can stay with Flynn at his house, I can help you!"

"And what about Ayana?!" Flynn interjected before she could respond. "Staying at the house puts her in danger too, she's lived with enough of that in her life. Is that what you really want to ask her to live with again?!"

"Then go, Flynn!" Rapunzel yelled. "Go hide in a 'luxury cabin' but leave me out of it!"

"I won't do that! I'm not going to leave you here by yourself, and I'm not going to put Ayana in danger-"

"-I won't-"

"Rapunzel!" he yelled finally reaching out of clutch her arms and give her a small shake. "There is a difference between hiding in a tower because you are afraid and staying away from danger because you are a target," he insisted in a low voice that sounded just as caring as it did firm.

It would have convinced her. But Rapunzel was unwavering. She stared at him for a few heartbeats then turned her fiery gaze upon her. It was nearly a slap in the face. Rapunzel had never looked at her like that, with betrayal and hatred and anger…that stare took her breath away. She simply hadn't been prepared for it. Then Rapunzel pulled herself from Flynn's grip with nothing but a small tug, looked back at him and disappeared into the bedroom.

"Rapunzel!"

"L-l-let me try." She managed to grab the man before he took two steps after her and halted his progress. "Let me try," she insisted again gently. She needed to go into hiding, and while she was in hiding, she would also need a friend. It was clear from the look that she'd given her that Rapunzel was no longer thinking warm thoughts about her. If she had to destroy her friendship further to ensure she'd be safe, to preserve the relationship she had with Flynn so he could support her while they were away…so be it.

Inside the bedroom Rapunzel sat in the dark on the bed, her hands folded in her lap as she stared down at them. The silence was overwhelming. They'd never had a problem speaking to each other before.

"This isn't what I want," she muttered from the frame of the doorless room. "But if it means keeping you safe-"

"I have worked so hard… _so hard_ , not to be a victim and put that life in the tower and everything that kept me bound behind me!" she hissed turning on her. "You helped me with that! You helped me get my life back! You helped me recreate it from nothing! And now…in one night…what I saw and what happened…you want me to…"

She nodded as she realized that Rapunzel was using her anger to hold in her tears. What happened tonight had scared her. The sight of her son in long robes had somehow reminded her of her former captor. She knew what that meant. She knew what it was like to be living your life and suddenly be confronted with a reminder of the old life. It wasn't fun. It brought back anxiety and trauma, it reopened old wounds, it made even the sturdiest and most confident of people second guess themselves. It was painful.

She knew exactly what it meant to ask her to do this, to ask her to relive some of those memories, and she didn't take it lightly as Rapunzel thought. But she knew that as much as she wanted to believe that her son was no threat, she couldn't take what he was lightly either. He wanted to kill. He'd proven that already. And if she stood in his way then that made her a threat and if her son couldn't hurt her then going after those closest to her would be the first step and she couldn't risk that he'd discover this relationship and threaten it. What old wounds would a capture like that bring for Rapunzel and Ayana, what would it make of Eugene Fitzherbert?

"I know…" she breathed sadly. "Which is why we wouldn't ask you to do this if we didn't believe it was necessary. I don't want you gone, we just…"

There was no choice.

Across the room, Rapunzel let out a snort of amusement. "'We' now. Last night you hated Rumpelstiltskin so much you could barely look at him. Now you're back to 'we'? Now you trust him again?"

"I don't trust him," she refuted without hesitation. That was possibly the only statement she'd made all night that she was sure of without a doubt. She felt a lot of things toward Rumpelstiltskin at the moment, including things that last night she would have believed were impossible, but trust wasn't one of them. That was going to take time to return, if it ever did. But there were some things that she didn't need trust for. Facts were facts no matter who stated them. "But I have enough sense to follow proper logic and know that this time what he is saying to me about your safety is true."

When Rapunzel shook her head and glanced away from her, she sighed and finally moved to sit next to her on the bed, aware that her friend immediately moved away from her by at least a foot.

"I don't want you to go away. I trust you far more than I trust him and I know that if you stayed you would be an asset-"

"Then why can't I stay."

"Because you'd also be at risk!" she stressed. "I don't know my son. I don't know the things he's capable of, but I know that if things had gone differently tonight, he would have killed Emma and believed it was for the greater good! I have to try and stop him and if he takes you or Flynn or even Ayana…I have lost too many friends in my life; I can't risk your life too."

"So you are going to work with Rumpelstiltskin again? Do you really think he'll help you? What's going to make this time different than any other?"

Her answer was not as quick as it was when she knew she didn't trust him. This was where their relationship began to get muddled. She didn't trust him. And she wanted to believe with her whole heart that he was going to help her this time, that he wouldn't betray her as he had done so often, but her heart kept her from doing that completely. That too would only come with time.

"I think that for the first time in a long time, possibly ever, he and I are fighting for the same thing. Our son. And for once…being apart doesn't seem to be making this situation any better. We made him together, and I think that we have to try and save him together."

"And what happens after you save him? Does he go back to trying to use the scissors? To imprisoning you on boats?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "I can't see beyond Gideon right now; he has to be everything. And if it doesn't work out, then…I'll know where you are, and I'll know you'll be there to help because you are good and kind. You're my friend. That won't ever change. And that's why I'm asking you to do this. Not because I want to bring you pain or hold you captive, but because you are my friend. And I want to protect you."

There was silence that stretched before them endlessly. She knew that was the best shot she had. She'd said everything she could think to say and now if Rapunzel refused she didn't think there was much that she could do to convince her short of bringing Flynn in here to do it and she was almost certain that would end with him throwing her over his shoulder and dragging her to the cabin.

But finally, Rapunzel sighed and felt a knot in her heart dissolve as she sensed her give in and stand. She rose with her and was surprised when her friend wrapped her arms around her and hugged her.

"You are my friend," she muttered in her ear. "And that is the only reason I'm going to do this, but if it fails…" suddenly Rapunzel pulled back so she could only just barely see her face in the street lights coming in the window. "If it fails I get to tell you 'I told you so' as many times as I want…because I'm your friend."

She smirked and offered her a nod. "Deal."

* * *

 **I said that sending her away had to be done, but I didn't say that Rapunzel was going to go gently into that good night. This was what made me have to split up this chapter and the last, the fact that I couldn't just have Rumple tell Belle, you have to send her away, and then Belle tell Rapunzel "Bye Felicia" and she'd walk away without a problem. Of course, Rapunzel isn't going to agree. Belle is her friend, she isn't just going to want to leave her alone in her time of need, espcially not with the person who was her tormenter only a night ago! And after what Rapunzel went through in the Enchanted Forest I never expected her to take kindly to the idea of "you have to go hide out of fear again". That was always bound to take some finagling to make it work. But look on the bright side, if I've done my job right, this is a really good Belle and Rapunzel chapter, you know...for the road.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973 and Fox24, for your reviews of the last chapter! Thank you for seeing reason with my decision and confirming it was the right thing to do. Please note that this is by no means the last you will see of Rapunzel! I love her, and her friendship with Belle, too much for that. She will be back, both in Moments Grown and Moments Beyond. In fact, she is not only a central character in both, but she's going to have some great chapters in both, and I'm hoping you'll love where I take her. But for this fiction, the next chapter will be her last. Fans of the Rapunzel/Belle friendship, you have my deepest apologies. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	21. Hiding in Plain Sight

After Rapunzel announced that she was going to go, Flynn made a call to his sister and told her to pack a bag of clothes and essentials as quickly as possible. She assumed from the conversation that she heard Ayana was confused and couldn't figure out what was going on to demand such an action but Flynn kept her calm, promising that everything was going to be okay and they'd be there shortly to explain. Rapunzel packed a bag too, but it was mostly knick-knacks around the apartment, a picture of her parents, a couple of necklaces from the jewelry box, some slippers, and her frying pan.

"For eggs, right?" Flynn questioned looking at her.

Rapunzel only smirked as she twirled it expertly in her hand. She shrugged as she settled it into her bag. "If you say so."

The rest of what Rapunzel would take, the clothes she wanted, were already at Flynn's. When they got home, they would pack, talk to Ayana, and be on their way. The cabins weren't far, and it wasn't late. She was hoping they would make it there by midnight.

"When you are ready, call this number," Rumpelstiltskin explained to them in front of the circulation desk. He handed them what looked like a business card of some kind.

"Dove?" Flynn questioned.

"He's an associate of mine. He'll meet you at the campground and let you into the cabin when you arrive. He'll provide you with food, clothes, anything you'll need to stay comfortable. He'll be checking in periodically. You'll be safe so long as you're on the grounds. The only other occupant will be Belle's father; he'll be in another cabin."

"I don't imagine he'll bother us too much," Rapunzel inserted looking over at her. Rapunzel knew what it was between her and her father, and knew that she hadn't spoken to him since she'd returned from the Underworld. She knew that Rapunzel was well equipped and prepared for anything her father might do to get information or not while they were all there.

"You'll be fine," she assured her.

"And you'll call us?" Rapunzel questioned stepping up to her. "Once you've helped Gideon, you'll call us back?"

"As fast as I can," she swore, grateful that her friend hadn't used uncertainty, but confidence. It wasn't 'if' they helped Gideon, it was 'when'. In her mind, they were going to be successful. She needed that. Rapunzel held her in a tight hug for a moment longer and whispered in her ear that she should call if she needed anything and she'd be right back here to help in heartbeat. Knowing it was true, she nodded and only let her go when Flynn placed an arm at her back.

"We should leave out the back door, in case he's watching."

"We'll leave at the same time as you, just in case. With any luck he'll be more interested in our departure to notice your exit," Rumple added.

Flynn nodded in approval and urged Rapunzel forward, but before they got two steps, she turned back to them. No, not them. Not even her! Before she knew what she was doing her friend was toe to toe with Rumpelstiltskin, looking him in the eye as she'd seen only a few do in her lifetime.

"If you hurt her…I'll find that dagger and kill you myself," she threatened with tears shining in her eyes.

There was absolute quiet and stillness from everyone in the aftermath of her words. She was so shocked and unprepared for what she'd said she didn't know what to do! Chastise her friend for what she'd said and denounce her words in front of the man she didn't trust? Stand between them knowing she couldn't stop Rumple if his anger flared?! Flynn seemed just as confused. A non-magic princess making a threat against the Dark One…who could prepare for that?!

"Call me if you need me," Rapunzel finally muttered, stepping away from Rumple and breaking her own silence to grab her hand. It was still limp with shock when she squeezed it, before grabbing Flynn and heading for the back door as if nothing had ever been said.

She watched Rumpelstiltskin carefully after her departure. But she was surprised to find there was no malice in his eyes as he watched the pair go. His face was stony, carefully concealing whatever it was he was feeling, but she was certain it wasn't anything bad or homicidal. In fact, he watched them with something like reverence in his eyes.

"Protective," he finally muttered once they were out of earshot.

She nodded. "She's my best friend," she admitted, hoping that it might quiet any terrible thoughts he had inside and was concealing after that comment. "After tonight she might be my only friend."

She wanted desperately to hear a response from him, but the sound of the back door being unlocked echoed through the walls of the library and before she really knew what was happening Rumpelstiltskin had wrapped an arm around her back and propelled her forward.

"Let's go."

He led her out of the library, and she turned to lock the door before questioning where they were going to go.

"The shop. We can talk about what to do next before coming back here."

"What makes you think we'll come back here?" she questioned as they crossed the street and caught a flash of Rapunzel and Flynn walking down the street and away from the library out of the corner of her eye.

"Books, Belle…you will always need books."

"Not this time," she muttered as he pulled out his keys and unlocked the shop for them.

Rumple only sighed as he let her in and she turned on the lights. "Never trust a librarian who doesn't need books," he muttered under his breath.

She snorted in irritation. "That's not the only reason you don't trust me, and we both know it."

"Belle-"

"I want to talk to him Rumple," she inserted before he could finish his thought. "I need to talk to him."

"And tell him what?"

"That I was wrong. That I shouldn't have tried to use the scissors on him. That neither of us should have."

"You think admitting that will make any difference?"

"He wants to put his family back together, doesn't he?! The one thing we both have agreed on is that we shouldn't have done what we tried to do. If we hadn't…" she shook her head and looked out the window of the shop seeing only her own reflection, her throat too thick to continue. Words failed her. If only...

She wondered what life would be like if neither of this had tried to use those scissors. Probably very different than now. If she'd never found out about those scissors she'd probably still be living on Hook's ship, probably still be pregnant, probably stewing as she wondered what he and the Evil Queen were doing in their spare time.

Instead, she'd sent her baby away to protect him and then tried to use the very weapon she'd wanted to protect him from against him. She didn't want to. She truly didn't want to hurt him, but she didn't want this life for him either and now…now all she wanted was to explain her actions and take it all back. Her son had come in search of them when he first got to Storybrooke for a reason. And she had chased him away…perhaps just like she'd chased Rumpelstiltskin away. Her father, Samuel, Hook, Ruby, even Rapunzel just now…everyone she knew left her eventually because she chased them away. What was wrong with her?

"Belle-"

"No!" she squawked when she felt hands on her elbows. She stepped out of his touch and wiped her eyes, swallowing back tears. They'd been screaming viciously at one another only hours ago. Giving and taking comfort from one another was an intimate step they were not ready for and in this situation, it was something that she was undeserving of.

"Please…I just want to talk to him. I need to see him. To do this the right way, as his mother without magic!"

"I very much so doubt he'll be easy to find at the moment," Rumpelstiltskin suggested. "He believes he has a purpose and I'm sure he sees everything that is not that purpose as hindrance."

"But we have to try," she cried, letting her tears fall. "We have to do something to find him and talk to him, guide him, stop him from doing this! I…" Images began to flash before her of only hours ago, when they'd last been in this shop looking for him and found him. Her hands had been full then. They were not now and the reason was heartbreaking. "I lost his teddy bear. I dropped it outside when we found him and-"

"Belle…things that are lost are not always gone." Rumple stepped closer to her and pushed something soft and warm into her hands. She stared down at the bear and struggled to see through the tears in her eyes all over again. She was happy it was back, even if she hadn't seen him summon it…but the magic was gone. The pull that had been there the last time they stood in this shop was no longer there.

"Please!" she begged, pressing it back into his hands. "Enchant it again…let's find our son."

Rumple stared at the offering in their hands for a long moment, looking hesitant. Then finally took it and waved his hand over it. He shook his head.

"It's still got magic in it," he muttered.

She took a deep breath as she looked it over. That didn't seem possible. "But I…I didn't feel anything when I touched it this time."

"Because he's blocking himself, Belle."

He meant to say the words so that it would kill the idea that she had, but he'd done the opposite. He'd given her a new idea.

"We have to go back to the library."

"Belle!"

"I have an idea!" she hollered over her shoulder as she walked out the door. Eventually, she heard his footsteps on the street behind her. When she unlocked the library it was so soon after they'd left that the lights were still buzzing. She barely took a breath, merely headed back into another room, her mind set on only one thing.

"Belle, what are you-"

"When you were with Emma you were blocked!" she explained. "We couldn't find where she was hiding you no matter which tracking or locator potion we used so I came up with another idea I was about to use when you came to me in the elevator." She pulled a big map out of storage and lay it over a table. "Blocking spells use head magic, they ward off spells that work through time and space, but if you use heart magic, and seek it using something that doesn't travel through time and space, something like a map-"

"He might just appear…"

His eyes were wide. Wide enough for her to know that even though he'd said it wouldn't do any good, he was interested in finding their son too. And why wouldn't he be? He wasn't the one who had committed such a terrible crime against him in his lifetime.

"This could work, Rumpelstiltskin. We can find our son."

"Perhaps," he muttered, his voice no more than a whisper before he picked his head up and looked around the library. "Wait here."

She did as instructed this time and looked the map over as he excused himself. Out in the lobby, near the circulation desk, she heard fumbling and sifting. Noises rattled on and on for minutes, and she was just about to ask if he needed help finding something when he walked back into the room carrying a bowl of gray dust. It was fine and soft, powdery. And when she touched it, the substance stained her fingers with shiny silver just like something else had once before.

"That looks like the stuff I used to bring back the writing in the books when Elsa was here.

He nodded as he looked over the map. "Same basic spell. Is this the best map you have of Storybrooke? All of it?"

"The only one. Everything else is smaller and sectioned off."

He nodded and spread the map out flat before sprinkling the dust on the top corner of it. Same basic spell, but clearly different. Immediately the powder began to move and pulse, bubble as if it were liquid and not solid, like a wave it began to roll over the map, but it wasn't even hardly out of the corner when she saw a black dot form. Her heart leapt as she moved closer to inspect it. The woods.

"He's on the edge of town!"

"Belle."

"He might have moved into the campsite the merry men left behind."

"Belle."

"Rumple that's not far from here we can be there in-"

"Belle look!" he demanded finally drawing her eyes away from the spot and over the entire map and her heart fell.

Black dots.

Everywhere she looked there were black dots! One dozen, two dozen, three, maybe four and the black mass still wasn't finished sweeping the map. If the spell was done right, then he wasn't in a single fixed spot.

"He's everywhere…"

* * *

 **So Rapunzel goes out with a bang, right! I wish I had words to tell you just how much I love that last comment that she made, but I don't. I do however have a good reason for it, so before you think that I'm making Rapunzel into a terrible Rumple hating person, give me two seconds of explanation. As previously mentioned, Rapunzel is going to be around for a while to come, but I didn't want this relationship to echo that of Ruby and Belle, I wanted Rumple, in the future, to like her. I'm not going to make them besties, but I do want Rumple to consider Rapunzel a "friend of the family". The best way to do that was to get him to respect her first. Now, I'm sure you are wondering, how does threatening his life make him respect her. Two reasons. Well, for one thing, she's not threatening him because she hates him or because she wants his power. She's doing it for Belle. We've all seen, if you want to get to Rumple, you have to go through his family. To make a threat like that shows that Rapunzel cares deeply for Belle and I think Rumple is the kind of man to distinguish that. Second, what she said and how she said it, takes some serious balls. She's not just threatening anyone, she's threatening the Dark One, who could quite easily kill her in a heartbeat, and to look him in the eye while she does it...that takes guts. No...that takes balls! And I've always thought that Rumple admires courage like that. Personally, I think that saying what she said, in defense of his wife, is what would make him admire her a little and that creates a foundation for respect and the relationship that is to come.**

 **Thank you so much, Grace5231973 and Fox24, for your reviews on the last chapter. I'm super excited to hear what you have to say about this chapter! Believe it or not we're just a couple of chapters shy of being a third of the way through this. How do we like it so far? I think this third is easily the hardest because of 6x11/6x12, but I'm excited for the chapters to come, lots of development, good development. The chapters we encounter in the next third have some of my favorite chapters as well as _the_ favorite chapter. I hope you are just as excited as I am. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	22. Two-Person Search Party

Obviously, their son was not everywhere. But what he was, was very smart. He'd expected something like this, maybe after his father had gone after him, and his mother as well, he knew that they would be out looking for him again soon and he had prepared for it.

"He's in one of these spots, but I'm afraid there is no way to tell which one is him other than to look," Rumpelstiltskin informed her as he made marks on the map where the gray bubbles had rested and pulled the magic off.

"It'll take us days to search for him. There must be a dozen dots on main street alone."

"Then I suppose we'd better start searching."

And search they did.

Before they left the library, Rumple took a picture of the map on his cell phone then blew the dust off the map and rolled it up so others wouldn't find the markings. They started on the main streets of town. By the time the sun came up, they'd searched through at least two dozen of the little black dots, and each was held just as little promise as the next one. One led them to a doorway, at least three of the dots led them under a tree, and another sent them to a stairway in Maleficent's daughter's apartment building. No matter where they went the answer was the same, no Gideon. She couldn't entirely be surprised. If she were him she would be looking for a place to hide, a shelter of some kind, and unless he was a wood nymph, she couldn't seem him simply nesting under a tree. In fact, she couldn't see any significance or commonality in the places that he'd sent them, but Rumpelstiltskin did. In the stairway of Lily's building, he saw a small odd shaped rust colored dot no bigger than the eraser on a pencil.

She was certain it was just a stain of some kind as the apartment building wasn't exactly the cleanest place in Storybrooke, but Rumpelstiltskin still knelt down closer to observe it. He pulled something from his jacket pocket, shimmering dust of some kind and tossed some of it at the wall. It stuck to the stain.

"Blood," he muttered. "Gideon's. I noticed the last two tree's had them too. I'd be willing to bet the rest of the places we've looked at have them as well I just didn't notice it until now." She felt some small shard of hope she didn't know she was holding onto slowly slipping away. She knew magic. She knew how it worked. There were several ways to track an individual. The easiest was if they had something of his they could use a tracking spell or locator potion. They had done this and realized Gideon was shielding himself from that kind of magic. The second way a person could be found by magic was using like to find like. If they had a bit his hair, or clothes, or even skin from a scratch they could use it to find their owner. But they didn't have any of that. All they had was their blood. And magic, when it wasn't directed to a particular part of a being, always reverted to blood. Even if they scratched each other or combined their hair, the magic would still seek out blood.

She stared at the small mark on the wall and felt a feeling of happiness and sadness wrap around her heart. It was truly ironic. The mark meant the magic they were using was working, it was finding their son, piece by piece, by piece. She thought of the map they'd looked at on Rumple's phone a dozen times already. She thought of all the little dots it contained, and her mind wondered how it was possible for the human body to have that much blood.

"Stand back," Rumple commanded at her side. Suddenly aware of his presence again she did as she was told and watched as he waved his arm over the stairwell. It glowed yellow for a moment.

"What did you do?" she asked curiously.

"Countered his own magic with some of my own," he responded. "He's smart, he knows we'll be forced to find his blood, but he's not going to send us quite on the wild goose chase he intends. A bit of his blood is all I need to enchant the objects to sense him, and now, if he should come back to any of these places, I'll know about it," he said tapping his head.

She didn't respond as they turned to leave, just watched as he opened his phone, the two peered once more at the picture of the map and went on to their next destination. The farther they got from Main Street, the more creative Gideon had gotten. One more drop of blood was up on a lamppost, another was on one of the boats in the marina, on a swing set by the school, a bench at the docks…the ache in her chest didn't go away with any of it. At every place, they found that little mark she had a vision of her son, a daydream somewhere in the back of her mind. They could have watched the snow fall against that lamppost on an evening walk, she might have held his young body up to the railing so he could point at the boats, she would have happily pushed him on that swing, and this bench…this bench would have been perfect to take a nap.

"Belle."

She jumped at the sound of Rumpelstiltskin's voice beside her and realized she'd been staring at the bench as he'd continued to go on. He'd had to come back for her.

"I'm fine; I'm ready, let's go." But she swayed as she took a step away forcing her husband to throw out his arm so she could regain her footing again.

"Perhaps we should stop for a bit, take a break. You were up all night, and the night before with me…"

"I'm fine," she insisted, pushing the spinning in her head aside. The words "take a break" were sobering enough. She couldn't take a break, she couldn't eat, she couldn't sleep, not until she knew that Gideon was safe, not until she talked to him, not until she apologized and they worked this out together!

Beside her Rumple didn't argue, just let out an irritable sigh as he checked his phone once more and pointed the way. "You can't give Gideon your best if you're not at your best, Belle," he mumbled as they walked on to the next location. "Trust me, I know better than anyone what this kind of obsession can lead to."

"'This kind of obsession'?" she snorted. Was that what he'd call it? This didn't feel like obsession this felt like intuition. She didn't care how tall he was or what words came out of his mouth; he was her baby. And even if she'd only carried him a few weeks beneath her heart, she knew that the empty place she felt inside of her wasn't going to be complete again until she had him back and knew he was safe. This wasn't an obsession, this was being a mother. He of all people should know that.

"So it's okay for you to 'obsess' over Bae for years, but I can't look for my son for a couple of days?"

"You are mortal," he snapped back. "You don't have the same kind of fortifications I did that allowed me to 'obsess over Bae for years'. And I think we would both agree that the kind of obsessing over him I did was anything but 'okay'," he concluded, opening a wooden door for her.

A shack. It was the next spot on their list. And she wanted so badly to have something to say to him, to add to what he'd just said, but she didn't have anything. He'd done awful things to get Neal back; endless hours spent toiling and dealing and spinning and cursing. She'd always understood, even before she'd been pregnant she'd understood that he'd needed to find his son, but she could also remember the result of those years of toiling, dealing, spinning, and cursing all too easily. It was the reason he'd never talked to her at night when they were married. He'd become an island unto himself, even when he was married; keeping secrets, believing in his own solitude, doubting every relationship…

She wasn't going to turn out that way. She just wasn't. For one simple reason. She was going to find her son. He was here. Gideon was not worlds away, he was in Storybrooke in very real danger. There was no curse or spell separating them just the brainwashings of her husband's mother. This search wouldn't take her centuries. She would succeed. She had too.

A shack. The back room of Granny's. Inside the bathroom in Archie's practice. A fitting room at a suit shop. The places were getting more and more extravagant and though she could see that he wouldn't be lurking in some of them (using Archie's bathroom as a hideout seemed highly unlikely), there were others she could see. Any of the shacks on the dock that they'd looked at would be empty and warm at night, perfect cover. The back of Granny's abandoned, quiet, and full of food would also be a refuge. Still, Rumple cast his spell on every last one of the stains, and they searched on. She was happy when their search finally took them out of the docks, out of the streets of Storybrooke…she hadn't gotten stares like she was getting from other people since she had first been dating Rumpelstiltskin. She was aware of how odd they must look together. Former lovers and current enemies working together again. It was odd even to her ears.

"He's not going to be here, he's not going to be in any of these," Rumple muttered as they stared up at the next location. It, like the last two dozen, was a family home on the edge of the forest. But this home was different than the last few. The sun was setting, the day was nearly done, and inside through the window, there were lights on. They'd been on in some of the others of course, but through a window, it was easy to see the occupants. A mother and father, two children. The kids were seated at a long wooden table, smiling at their parents as they brought a bowl of something she couldn't see and a tray of some other kind of food. She spied the two tall glasses of milk on the table and felt her eyes water. Family dinner. She watched unashamedly as the parents scooped whatever was in the dishes on to plates, before sitting down themselves to get their own food. They looked up all at one time, and smiled at each other, a small moment of peace before the little boy stood up on his chair and the father quickly reached out to put him back in his place. Every bone in her body ached.

"Gideon is running from his family, he's not going to hide with one," Rumple whispered beside her. His words tore her gaze away from the family, and she looked up to find him also watching the spectacle before them. He appeared far more mesmerized than she had thought. It was almost as though he was unable to stop looking at them. She knew the scene he was watching, she knew it all too well. She had many memories of it in her childhood. Of course, raised in a castle as the Princess, dining when her parents were the King and Queen looked quite different than it did here, but she imaged it was all the same at the heart of it. The questions about her day, the books she'd read, the things she'd learned. Her parents would inevitably start talking about the Kingdom or trips they'd have to take. And as a child, when she realized the conversation wasn't focused on her, she could be quick to add "my tutor says that I'm the best student he's ever had!" which would inevitably bring smiles and praises from her parents once more.

Family dinner here looked different, but she imaged it was really the same in any realm…unless there were no parents to care. Unless your wife was constantly unhappy. Unless your son had nothing good to report from friends. She wondered if Rumpelstiltskin had ever had a happy family dinner. She wondered if he'd ever had a happy family anything.

Unable to think of anything else to say or do to break the trance he was in she forced her hand into his pocket and plucked out his cell phone.

"What's next?" she questioned quickly, finding the picture of the map.

Sure enough, the motion forced him to look up at her, but he didn't need to say what came next because she was fairly sure that looking at the phone she knew what came next. There was nothing more in Storybrooke to look for. They'd searched the town. All that remained now was the woods.

It was overwhelming. There were at least as many dots in the woods as there were in the town, maybe double. Her stomach hurt just looking at it all. She felt sick.

"I don't suppose you've felt him at any of the other places?" she questioned looking at the beginning of the expanse in front of her.

"The sun has nearly set, perhaps it's time we-"

"We're not stopping Rumple," she insisted before he could suggest it again. "Not until we've found Gideon, not until I've talked to him. You had your chance I need mine." Before he could say anything, she took two steps and found his hand on her elbow. She'd nearly fallen. Again. But "nearly" was the keyword.

"I'm fine," she exclaimed freeing herself and quickly moving into the brush of the forest.

"You're not fine!" he corrected, his temper rising as he followed her. "You've not eaten, you've not slept."

"Neither have you."

"I can survive without both; you cannot. If you keep going the way you are now the only thing you'll do when you find Gideon is collapse! It's getting to be far more of a hindrance than a help."

"So you want me to go?" she fought back, turning around as she walked so she could challenge him properly and keep pace at the same time. "You want me to go so you can find our son again on your own, is that it?"

"Belle, if you're not careful, you're going to-"

She stumbled over something that rolled, perhaps a stick. As she fought to get her footing back, she heard the branch snap beneath her foot.

And then she heard something else snap.

* * *

 **There are times when this series makes me say "that's stupid". These few days, the dots and the search for Gideon, I crafted them the way I did because, well...it was stupid. So recap. Gideon first shows up, Gold goes looking for him and finds him in one afternoon. Gideon disappears again, they find him in the street with Emma no more than a few hours later. The next time we see them, it's three days after that battle and Belle and Rumple are running through the forest saying "oh my gosh we can't find him! But let's keep looking through the woods anyway, we might find him sleeping under a lovely hallow log!" That's stupid. What are we supposed to assume they spent two days on the couch binge watching The Handmaid'** **s Tale before finally saying "maybe we should find Gideon..." and then went out and said "I know we should use magic, but why don't we search the woods on foot instead?" I couldn't live with that. I had to give them something to do over these days, even if it is a "wild goose chase". Thus my reasoning for the map a chapter ago. I'm essentially giving them something to do until we "see" them again as well as adding in a reason that all of a sudden it's harder to find Gideon than it was two days ago.**

 **Thank you so much to Fox24, Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, and Rumbellefan for the reviews you left me! Truly I appreciate them. I know, from a few of our previous conversations, that a couple of you will not be surprised by where this chapter ended. Someone had already noted that I hadn't had Belle sitting down to eat anywhere in this fiction so far and someone else asked me exactly how many days have passed and how long it had been since Belle had slept. The answer is 48 hours. It's been at least 48 hours since Belle slept or ate. The reason for that is simple. At a time like this, I just didn't see Belle saying "well, the sun's down, let's call it a night." Things are dire, and I figured that Belle would probably push herself as far as she could in her determination. The problem is that while the body can be super resilient, it can't be _this_ resilient. Throughout this chapter, and prior chapters, I've slowly been building in the effect of lack of sleep: irritability, hallucinations, hearing things, illness, being unsteady on her feet. The next chapter will pick up right where this leaves off to figure out exactly what happened, it's another one of my favorite chapters, and I think you Rumple fans are going to enjoy it. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	23. A Crack in the Foundation

She had never been a weak individual, but she'd had her own fair share of injuries as a child; the normal bumps and bruises that came from falling down or playing too hard. She'd always been a little clumsy as a teenager, there were probably far more falls of her horse than usual when she'd been learning to jump and of course like every other child she'd been struck down by childhood illnesses that forced her to bed for weeks a time as her body healed the internal injury. She'd come close to death one time when she'd gone out into a field alone in the middle of winter to watch shooting stars. She'd felt the cold but she was too amazed to go home and through her shivering eventually, she'd just gone to sleep. When she woke in her bed in her parent's castle, it had been hard to believe she'd nearly died. It didn't feel like she expected death would feel like.

She expected it to feel like this.

She'd broken her arm once, when she was a girl and fell off a ladder in the library, but if she was honest she didn't remember the pain. She'd been too young. But she had a memory, from Isaac's storybook of her father breaking her arm and meeting Rumpelstiltskin, the Light Knight who healed it. But the echo of that false memory was nothing compared to the real thing. To the sound of the snap her ankle had made, to the off-putting sight of seeing it twisted in a way that wasn't right.

She screamed. It felt like she had glass stuck in her muscles, beneath her skin. The more she tried to move it the worse it hurt. Her vision blurred, it tunneled into nothing but that ankle and she felt sick to her stomach as pain consumed her.

"Stop! Stop! You'll only make it worse!" Rumpelstiltskin yelled over her screaming as he knelt beside her to examine it. It was caught in a root. That had been what tripped her. The heel of her shoes, not fit for hiking, had tripped on a root and the toe had been caught beneath another odd arch shaped root. When she fell her foot had stayed where it was.

"Fix it!" she gasped through the pain. They were the only words she could think to form as tears filled her eyes. "Fix it, fix it!"

He tried to remove it from the root. She screamed again. Moving it didn't make it feel any better, instead it sent shocks of pain up her entire body. She was going to pass out. She knew she was. She could feel cold dark oblivion getting it's bony fingers around her. But somewhere in the distance her son was calling for her. She needed to stay awake for him. To help him. He needed her!

"Gideon!" she cried.

"He's not here."

In the distance, there were people in the street, gathering and looking around, the couple she'd just watched in the house were outside. When Rumple tried uselessly to get her foot unstuck she screamed again and the people looked over toward where they were. Were they looked for her? Did they know her son? Was he hiding in one of their homes?

She heard Rumple mutter something under his breath that sounded like "Plan B" and he moved closer to put his hands behind her back and under her knees. She felt fear paralyze her as she realized that if he tried to stand up with her then he'd tear her foot from her body. He made the motion and she closed her eyes against what was coming, only to realize when she opened them there were no longer in the forest. They were home. He held her in his arms and gently set her down on the nearest sofa.

She was beyond screaming as he set himself down on the coffee table across from her and held her broken ankle in his lap.

"Fix it!" she growled through clenched teeth. "Fix it, fix it, fix it!" Her hands were balled into fists making her joints pop and her nails dig into her flesh as he carefully worked the shoe off her foot. Her jaw was clenched so tight her teeth ground together, but she felt nothing other than the pain in her ankle.

"It's not as simple as all that," he muttered sounding impossibly calm. "Flesh wounds are easy, but wounds of the bones are not."

"Just do it!" she begged with the tears finally streaming down her face. She felt like she could barely take air in and she was clutching the fabric of the pillow so tight she knew it would wrinkle permenantly. But the pain of having her shoe removed made her leg jerk in reflex again, and she was in pain all over again. How could an ankle hurt everywhere?

"Belle."

She looked up at his call, opened her eyes just in time to see him reaching forward as if he meant to touch her hair but instead his hand traveled over her face and when he sat back she realized the pain was gone. It was the strangest bit of magic she'd ever felt. Like a switch had been flipped! One minute the pain was there the next it was not!

She immediately moved the blanket draped over her aside and picked her leg up off the floor and examined it, she rotated it this way and that…not an ounce of discomfort. Remarkable. She'd forgotten how extraordinary magic could be when it was used for good.

"It's wonderful," she breathed in the direction of Rumpelstiltskin. "I thought you said it was difficult. That didn't take long at all!"

"Look around, Belle," he muttered quietly.

She didn't understand. Look around? What was she supposed to be looking at?

By the fireplace the clock chimed.

7:15.

That wasn't right. It had been six o'clock when she'd last checked the time. The sun was setting, it was getting darker by the second. But now it was brighter as if…as if it wasn't sunset, but sunrise. She looked around, located the different angle of the sun coming in through the windows, the blanket that had been over her that she couldn't remember, and Rumpelstiltskin, now that she looked at him, he was wearing a new suit. The jacket was hanging on the banister by the front door, waiting to be put on.

"Bones are not easy or painless to heal. I put you to sleep to avoid the pain of it."

"And it took all night?" she questioned feeling slightly irritated.

"You needed the rest," he admitted with a touch of guilt in his eyes.

So he'd put her to sleep and had time all to himself? Just what he'd wanted.

"Well did you find him?" she demanded as her anger flared and tears returned to her eyes.

He glared at her recognizing the accusation behind her words. "I haven't left the house since we arrived. I healed your leg, took a shower, got changed, and repaired that old phonograph all night," he muttered motioning to a table behind her. She recognized that. She knew that it had been in pieces the last time she'd seen it. Still, truth didn't make sense to her, not coming from him. She'd been the victim of his lies too many times.

"You could have fixed it with magic."

He smirked. "There's very little satisfaction in that. Besides, I needed something mindless to focus on my other magic, just in case Gideon went back to any of the locations we'd already found."

That news was enough to cool what she felt. She'd forgotten they'd set magic like that over the locations they'd found already.

"And did he?" she questioned desperately.

"No," he answered. "Quiet all night."

She nodded, though she felt disappointment race through her. No Gideon. And Rumple...she didn't believe him about being here all night and it was like him to come up with alibi's but…logically what he'd told her made sense. She wasn't sure if she didn't believe him because it wasn't believable, or because she simply didn't want to. He'd put her to sleep for the night knowing full well that it wasn't what she wanted and the reality of that betrayal stung, but did it matter? He'd healed her and it was water under the bridge. She was awake now, what mattered was Gideon. As much as she wanted to scream and yell at him, it would take time away from their son. They had no time to argue.

"So then we still need to search the woods," she decided. "He'll be there-"

Rumpelstiltskin caught her arm before she could make it to the door. "Food and shower first."

"I'm fine."

"You are not," he stated through clenched teeth. His eyes were hard and angry, set in a dead stare against her. "You need food and you need something proper to go stomping around the woods in or else you'll injure yourself again."

She wrenched her arm free of his grasp. "I'll be fine."

He sighed as she moved around him toward the door. "I'm not coming with you," he stated as she had her hand on the knob. That gave her pause.

"Rumple-"

"If you walk out that door, I'm not coming with you."

No. Now, she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Being apart wasn't part of their agreement. She didn't trust him to this on his own. Why would he change their arrangement? "I thought we decided-"

"Precisely. 'We' decided. But I'm not going to stand by and let you search the woods as you slowly deprive yourself of nourishment and sanity. If you leave without food and clothes then you go on your own and I will search for Gideon alone. And you do well to remember, I have the map." As if to illustrate his point he held his cell phone up from his pocket.

Anger, all her life, had always been the color red. But suddenly she felt it with such blinding hot pain it began white rage at his proposal, his threat, really. It was no better than being held prisoner! It was damn near blackmail! And yet...

He had her. He had her and she knew it. Her body knew it as well, as her stomach let out a loud grumble at the idea of food. It was true, the hours of rest he'd forced her to sleep through had been good, she felt better in a way that she didn't know she needed. And she couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten. It had been days. Besides, she didn't trust Rumpelstiltskin enough to risk letting him go own his own and declare war between the two of them again. There was no time to argue. He had her.

She crossed her arms over her chest and stood rooted to where she was, unwilling or unable to walk out the door.

"How do I know you won't leave and trap me in here while I change?"

"You don't," he answered. "But you have to give a little trust to gain more, Belle. I can't earn what you don't give me."

Trust was hard when it had been broken so many times on that very premise. But this was their son. Tempting as it was to go she believed in what they'd discovered that night at the well. Working apart wasn't working. Working together might.

"I'll be down in a minute. After breakfast we search the forest," she decided.

"I agree."

She marched up the stairs, knowing that she still had clothes and shoes in the house to change in to. She stomped loudly, her anger seething and riling within her chest-

"Be sure to wear something you can walk in this time," he called after her before she could get halfway up the staircase. "You need to take particular care you don't injure that ankle again."

To anyone else she was sure it would have sounded like a playful joke but she could recognize the serious warning in his voice. He wasn't saying those words just to say them.

She stopped on the stairs and took a deep breath, trying to contain her irritation. "Why not?" she finally questioned. "Besides the obvious."

"I wasn't lying. Flesh and muscle are shallow injuries. Knitting them back together again is simple, but bone is deeper, it's the foundation for muscle and skin. Injure bone as you did and you'll find in the future that any injury you sustain in that leg will take longer to heal no matter how minor."

She looked Rumpelstiltskin over again, thinking of his words. They were more than just medicinal, they were truthful for a number of situations, though she wasn't sure if he realized it. Their relationship seemed to be living proof of that. In the beginning, shallow lies and skin deep fights had been nothing to heal. But this, what was between them now…their foundation was cracked. Badly. It probably had been since that day at the town line, since the day he'd tricked her with the dagger. The trust that had once made their relationship possible against any odd had gone away and now no matter how they had tried, unless that foundation healed any insult or injury they sustained would be longer to heal. She wondered if it could heal. If it was repairable at all? Could bones heal if one didn't want to mend?

"I'll keep that in mind," she muttered before continuing carefully up the stairs.

* * *

 **This is one of my favorite chapters because I think it really drives home the theme or the purpose of this fiction beautifully. I feel like, while Gideon is an essential element driving the plot, the central theme of this fiction (and even for Rumbelle during this half season) was putting this couple back together. Their foundation is cracked, their relationship is in pieces, and this fiction is all about fixing that, stripping it down to the barest of bones, and putting it back together piece by piece. We're not really going to worry about intimacy in this fiction because intimacy isn't a problem of theirs. If anything I think they'd both agree they get back to the physical stuff too fast when there are other issues to get worked out. I'm not even trying to make them husband and wife again in this fiction! I'm just trying to address the issues and rebuild a relationship. Trust, honesty, and respect; this fiction is about working out those issues. Sometimes it comes in the form of fights like this, that force them to end in compromise, but more and more we're going to see it morph into basic conversations they need to have about past hurts and rebuilding the trust they have in one another so they can get start to get back on the path they were once on. We're going to fix that foundation. I hope you like this chapter. Personally,** **I love these fights and totally think this one is a win for Rumple. He's flat out telling her she's being stupid. I don't like the way he forces her hand (but that's how I know I got the character right) but I like the meaning behind the ultimatum he gives her. One of the problems I've thought that has always existed in their relationship is they treat each other with kid gloves. Belle doesn't want to hurt him or cause him pain so she doesn't talk about her time with Neal. Rumple doesn't want Belle to leave so he hides things from her. The fact that he would give her an ultimatium in the way he did should show that those gloves are off and in my mind, that is necessary to heal this relationship. I love it, but then again I might be biased.**

 **Thank you Paintbrush123, Grace5231973, and Fox24 for your reviews of the last chapter. Anyone want to take a guess at why I added that last part in there? I did that because Belle's "oh no I twisted my ankle, it'll take to long to heal, go on ahead of me!" at the end of season six was the lamest write off I'd ever heard of. We've seen he could heal her in a second, less than that, and she could have gone with him. Now, fortunately, unlike A &E I actually have some sense of foresight so by doing what I've done here I just set that scene up to actually make a little bit of sense. You're welcome A&E! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	24. Unexpected Help

She didn't want to believe him. She didn't want to trust him, but in the past when he'd faked an alibi and she'd wanted to believe it, she'd been able to see the holes in it. Maybe not right away, but they always unraveled eventually. This time was different. She wanted to not believe him, but when she arrived upstairs to their former bedroom even she had to admit that if he was faking this alibi, he'd done a very good job covering his tracks. In his closet she could see the clothes that he'd been wearing for the last couple of days that she'd been dragging him around town with her, searching for their son. He'd put them in the hamper for laundry, which she noted was near to overflowing. She itched to do it. Not out of some kind of loyalty but rather because when she felt stressed, housework was always a therapeutic chore for her. But not this time. She was certain all the therapy in the world wasn't enough to fix all that was broken inside of her.

When she came upstairs, she had intended simply to change and go back downstairs for her required meal before getting to work, but in searching for holes in his alibi, she pulled back their shower curtain. Inside she noted that it was wet, with trace amounts of the bubbles that smelled like him crowding the drain. Before she could close the curtain in defeat, the shower called to her. She couldn't remember the last time she'd taken one. Or eaten. Or changed. Or slept. Maybe he was right. Maybe she wasn't taking care of herself. But how was she supposed to worry about sleep or a shower when all she could think about was Gideon? Well, someone had thought about it apparently. Her soaps and washes were all still there from when she'd lived there and, promising herself it would be quick, she stepped into the shower as she'd told him she would.

It was a shower. Just long enough to make herself clean. She felt that she could have spent hours in there but all she allowed herself were the necessities before turning off the water and stepping outside. She dressed simply enough just something that would keep her warm as she trudged through the forest and shoes with a thicker and lower heel so that she could keep her footing better. She towel-dried her hair within an inch of its life and used the left over hair drier to get it to a place she felt confident that by the time she shoveled some food into her mouth, it would dry enough to go out into the chilly morning to search once more for her son.

Downstairs she intended to find some dry cereal or maybe something that hadn't gone bad to eat as he required before they left. After all, the one thing they always lacked in this house was food. They were always together just long enough to get it from the store and eat a couple of meals before inevitably they broke up again and it all soured, forgotten about in the midst of their arguments.

But when she got downstairs, she found what she hadn't expected. Pancakes. Freshly made, with two place settings, butter, syrup, and everything. He was just pulling what appeared to be the last of them off the griddle when she arrived.

"Good," he muttered glancing at her out of the side of his eye. "You look better. You have more color than before."

"Remedies of a hot shower. Did you also go to the store?" she questioned looking over the spread skeptically. She was confident that none of that had been there that morning.

"Convenience store, just before I showered and woke you. It's amazing what counts as 'necessary items' in this town."

That she couldn't refute. Food was something that couldn't be created by magic alone. It could be grown faster so seeds could be harvested and grown rapidly, ingredients could be stolen by means of magic and manipulated into a dish with magic, the illusion of food could be presented and even taste like the real thing, but because it was magic and fake so it never satisfied. She'd read stories in the Enchanted Forest of Kings and Queens who would torture traitors by using magic to craft them food and present it to them. No matter how much they eat they were never full and slowly starved to death feasting. He wouldn't fake this food now. He'd been too concerned about her condition to give her something that wouldn't help her and although many might think he used magic to prepare it she knew better. He didn't always like to, but he was a decent enough cook who would take pride in doing it himself. There was no bacon or sausage, things that a simple store would lack. But she'd had flour in the house forever, and that never went bad. Eggs, milk, and butter could all easily be found in a convenience store.

And it did smell good.

She took her seat at her usual spot at the table, he took his own, and even though he claimed he didn't need food, they ate together. They'd had many different kinds of meals together in their time. But it was difficult to remember one as awkward as this. She neither wanted to enjoy his food or his company, and she was far from wanting to admit that he was right and she'd needed the sleep and food, but she wrong on at least two counts. She'd needed what he told her she did and she was enjoying the food. As for the company…it was a far cry even from when they'd sat opposite the table from one another at the castle, eating their meals in companionable silence. She tried to focus not on the fact that the man who had imprisoned her first on a ship which nearly killed her, and then with a bracelet was sitting once more by her side, but rather focused on what was in front of her and eating until she felt she was bursting. She didn't want to stop their search for anything that resembled a lunch. Frankly, the idea that they'd have to stop for dinner was one she didn't want to consider. If they had to pause again, it would mean they were still searching. She didn't want to continue to look tomorrow, she wanted her son found.

Three pancakes in and taking a fourth he finally broke the silence between them by pulling his cell phone out of his pocket and giving it to her with the picture of the map already pulled up.

"I think we should start on the West Side," he muttered. "Just because it's closer. We can work our way up through the South and East, the North side only has a few places it could be. We can leave that for tonight or tomorrow, depending upon-"

All words stopped as they heard a knock at the door followed by it opening, then closing, and footsteps.

It was an odd sound that she was unfamiliar with in this house. She could only imagine a few people who were bold enough to do such a thing. Emma was one of them. But the footsteps were too timid to be Emma. She could hope that it was Gideon, but she knew better. He was a tall man, his footsteps would be heavier than this.

"Rapunzel?" she questioned looking over at Rumple as he got out of his seat. He was already sneering in a way that suggested it wasn't her friend venturing out of her protective spot. It was someone he knew. And judging by the look on his face, someone who might need protecting! She followed him quickly out of the kitchen and into the hallway. The person was in the living room she'd slept in last night, looking around and taking gloves off her hands.

"Blue?!" she blurted out looking over the fairy.

"Oh! There you are!" she exclaimed.

"Well, what ae you doing here?" she questioned, stepping in front of Rumpelstiltskin. The last she'd seen of Mother Superior she'd looked close to death, wasn't it a little soon for her to be up and about?

"I came to help."

"Haven't you done enough?" Rumple snarled behind her.

"Rumple!"

"Haven't you?"

"Blue!" she snapped at the fairy, stopping whatever fight she felt coming. Surely that would not help them find their son ad if she could contain her urge to fight with her husband for that reason, then so could they. They had to. "You look better than last I saw you."

"Fairy magic speeds up recovery, I believe you are familiar with it," she explained to her, though the fairies eyes were focused over her shoulder where she could feel Rumpelstiltskin seething. "I came to help," she finally stated, glancing between the two of them, though she knew her gaze lingered far longer on her husband than her. "It's my fault the Black Fairy took Gideon; I want to see if I can't help get him back."

"Oh, it's not-"

"You know what that woman is capable of, how could you let this happen?" Rumple hissed behind her.

"I didn't _let_ it happen, and I'm not the only one who knows what that woman is capable of. You are the last person in the world who should be surprised."

"Mother, do you…do you know who the Black Fairy is?"

"Of course I know!" she stated sounding like she was insulted. "She was a fairy, I've been the leader of the fairies since the first child laughed. What kind of leader would I be if I didn't know my own?"

"What kind of leader are you to lose one of your own kind to Darkness like hers."

"I can't make my fairies do what is in the best interest of the world! They have free will. I can only guide them to make good choices."

"Well, that shows us exactly what your guidance is worth."

"Enough!" she finally exclaimed, throwing her hands out. She understood there were some relationships that were not reparable and that this was one of them, but if Blue wanted to help then they had to learn to live with each other because she wanted her son back! She wasn't sure if Blue knew that the Black Fairy was Rumple's mother or not. She'd inquired because she wasn't sure but clearly she hadn't been clear enough because her answer had been vague. Did she know the Black Fairy was Rumple's mother, or did she just know her as a fairy? Did she simply know the Black Fairy and Rumple had dealings in the past? The way Rumple kept his secrets hidden she was certain that it was the latter. But it didn't matter. This was about finding Gideon and stopping him. They could sort everything else out later. They needed any help they could get, even if it came from the fairy who'd lost him.

"Now…you said could help…how?"

* * *

 **Ultimately, there are two missing days between when we see Rumple and Belle at the well in 6x11 and when they speak with one another again in the forest in 6x13. (Remember, I'm sending them on these "goose chases" to give them something to do during this time, besides binge watching Stranger Things.) Although I understand why they chose not to show them in 6x12 I must admit that I felt it was a sad thing because clearly there are important things going on in that space of time that I really would have loved to have seen. One of those important things...hey everyone, Mother Superior is back and better than ever?! And oh my gosh she's teamed up with the Golds! I, for one, wish there was some way to know what happened and how it came about that Blue was suddenly working with the couple. And hey...I write a fanfiction for just that! I know that in this case it's more of a filler chapter, but I hope you'll like what I do with her in these chapters. And as for the rest, there is a second theme for these next few chapters, something important that was glossed over, that some of you have already picked up on and I know you are going to enjoy that storyline. But we'll dig into that in a couple of chapters.**

 **Thank you Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, JudyMulder, Rumbellefan, and Fox24 for such lovely reviews. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to know that you are enjoying this story! One third down, two thirds to go! Hopefully I won't disappoint you! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	25. Needles and Haystacks

"She was a fairy. And so she still is, dark or not. Therefore, her wand should be able to locate Black Fairy Dust." From the depths of her long blue cloak, Blue pulled a long thin wand that was familiar to her, but not in a good way.

"The Black Fairy's wand," she breathed looking it over. She'd only seen that wand once before...it wasn't something often used for good. "But…we're looking for Gideon, not the Black Fairy or her dust."

"But if Gideon grew up with her, it's likely that her magic is what he knows. He'll probably have brought some of it with him," Rumple explained stepping around her so he could snatch his mother's wand away from the Blue Fairy. He was her son, and the Dark One, she didn't know if the Blue Fairy could work the wand properly but she knew Rumple could. She'd seen him do it, after all. But her question was whether or not the Blue Fairy knew everything that she did. She didn't seem surprised that he'd reached out and taken the wand nor did she argue, but she did seem put off by the aggressive nature of his motion. But when Rumple moved out of the room with the wand she didn't particularly care what the Blue Fairy knew or didn't know, nor did she care if she'd planned for Rumple to take the wand. She wasn't about to let him out of her sight as long as he had that map and was going to look for their son. She gave the Blue Fairy a final glance before turning, grabbing a coat from the hallway and standing out on the front porch with him. Behind her, Blue followed.

Outside Rumple stood and placed the wand on his upturned palm. He moved it this way and that for a moment, as if he was trying to balance it perfectly. Then suddenly, it seemed to snap to life. Almost the way a compass finds North she watched as the wand began to spin. Around and around, as if it was attached to his palm. Then it slowed. Turn by turn the motions became a bit more erratic, turning one way then another way. It was detecting something. And she had a feeling she knew what that was.

"So…there's fairy dust…that way?" she supposed when it seemed to at least be settling on a direction that pointed back toward town. That was disappointing. They'd already searched the town, and Rumple said that none of the places Gideon had marked had been revisited. Though she supposed he didn't have to go back to those places, he could just keep making new ones, just keep giving her the run around until she collapsed from exhaustion…again!

"No," Rumple muttered. "There is Fairy dust that way but…the pull is weak. Too weak, it's not worth following."

"But if it's Gideon?"

"It could be, but it also couldn't be," the Blue Fairy chimed in behind her. "There are remnants of that dust in many different places. For all we know, the dust he's found could very well be at Gold's shop."

She glanced up at Rumpelstiltskin. He didn't deny that he had any Black Fairy dust at his shop. She fought the urge to fight with him and instead focused on the task at hand. It was all about finding the pull that was the strongest. Remnants meant that some people had a bit of the fairy's dust stored here or there, but they were assuming that if Gideon had just come from her realm, then he would have the most substantial bit of it. That was the line they needed to find.

She and the Blue Fairy stood on the front porch, silently watching, for what felt like an hour that thing spin on his hand. It found three or four more small batches, or remnants, of the Black Fairy dust before Rumple let out a small noise. The Blue Fairy ignored the sound and just continued to wait, but she knew him well enough to know that noise was not nothing.

"What is it? What have you found?" she questioned looking over the wand. It was the direction of the woods.

"This one is strong," he answered. "It's the strongest it's found so far."

"Follow it?" she asked.

He nodded. Together the new group of three walked down the steps of the house and moved left, heading in the direction of the woods. It was the North woods. What were the chances that he was hiding in the very spot they intended to search last?

They didn't run, though she wanted to desperately. Instead, they walked through the streets of Storybrooke, through backyards, swing sets, and driveways for an hour before they finally got into the woods. Once inside the woods they made their way deeper into the forest, where the foliage was so thick she nearly wished she had a flashlight. The only time they talked was when she asked if he could feel if they were closer or not. He only shook his head.

"It doesn't work that way, Belle."

So this magic wasn't like the bear. The signal didn't feel stronger the closer they got or the weaker the farther they got. At this rate, they could keep walking for hours or find Gideon in the next five minutes. For all they knew, he was walking somewhere and they weren't getting closer at all.

"Belle look!" the Blue Fairy hissed, suddenly reaching out to grab her arm. She pointed to a spot deeper into the woods but saw what she was pointing at immediately. There, between the branches, in a tree up ahead, was something black.

"Gideon," she breathed. It was long and it was black and she couldn't think of anyone else who would be out in the forest like this except her son. "Gideon!" she called, squeezing Rumple's shoulder so he'd see it too before she began to run up the hill. "Gideon! Wait! Gideon! Gid-"

She stopped in her tracks just as she reached out to grab the fabric. It was fluttering in the breeze, but not because Gideon wore it as a long cloak. He wasn't wearing it at all. Suspended from a tree branch, there were only clothes. Black ones. Including the cloak that she knew was her son's. She pulled the blanket-like covering free and held it in her hands.

"I don't understand…"

Rumple and the Blue Fairy had finally caught up with her. The Fairy beside her grabbed at the fabric and let out a sigh of what seemed to be disappointment.

"She made him the garments," she explained. "They're saturated with her fairy dust."

Rumple let out a growl. He waved his hand and all at once the cloak in her hand, as well as the clothes hanging on the tree branch, disintegrated into black and sparkly fairy dust.

"She made his clothes; he knew we'd be looking for the dust."

"He probably made new ones with his own magic."

"So, can't we find him by locating any of the dust he brought with him?" she questioned, quickly translating their comments.

Rumple shook his head. "None of the other signals were as strong as this. None stood out," he growled staring not at her but the Blue Fairy. He was angry. Dangerously so.

"We could still search for the smaller vials," Blue corrected.

"If he had any small vials on him he's separated and hidden them. It would only be another needle in a haystack, no different than the plan that we had! He's one step ahead of us again."

"That's no reason to give up."

"No, but it's just like a fairy to promise what they can't deliver!" he yelled before stomping off it the other direction.

"You're the last one to-"

"Blue! Blue!" she cried reaching out to hold her friend back from going after him. He was angry, she knew he was, but she was certain no good would come out of the two of them screaming at one another. Besides, she had the unnerving feeling that the anger he felt had very little to do with the wand or Blue or even the dust. And if that was true, he was angry at the wrong person.

"Let me," she muttered. Then with a smile that assured her she'd come back to get her when he was calmed down, she walked off down the hill after her husband.

* * *

 **I know this chapter ends sort of on a cliffhanger, but ya'll, these next dozen or so chapters...you're going to love them! As many have already guessed the second theme that we have to cover between 6x11 to 6x13 is trust. Because we went from 6x11 where they very clearly had no trust for one another to 6x13's "you can trust me, Belle" without any indication as to why she would suddenly believe that. Over these next chapters, we are going to see their trust for one another return, not entirely, but it's going to be heaps better than it is now! And the journey, the steps they are going to take to get back there is going to have them working together, listening to one another, and finally beginning to balance one another out once again.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973 and Fox24, for your reviews on the last chapter. I'm so excited for these next chapters and I hope that you are too! Up next the conclusion of this chapter and the first major step! And as always, Peace and Happy Reading!**


	26. A Little Bit Can Go A Long Way

"She's just trying to help," she stated when she finally caught up with Rumpelstiltskin at the bottom of the hill.

"Yes, help fix the problem that she created," he growled. He'd stopped walking, but he wasn't looking at her. She couldn't see his eyes, but she felt like she could see him scanning the woods around them, hoping to see that same flash of black that she had just seen on the hill. But he wouldn't. She knew he wouldn't. Their son was smart, and it was just like he'd said, Gideon was one step ahead of them at every turn. One step ahead of him since he'd been born. That wasn't the Blue Fairy's fault.

"The problem I created," she corrected. She watched as his shoulders slouched in a sudden dismissal of the tension they'd been holding and he turned back to look at her. "I sent our son away, Rumple. She was just following orders, my request!"

"This isn't your fault, Belle," Rumpelstiltskin insisted, walking a few steps back up the hill to where she stood and pointing at some space over her shoulder. "You didn't send our son off to some monster like my mother; you gave him to a fairy for protection. This is her fault. She should have fought harder. If she really had carried out your orders she'd have protected him!"

"She couldn't have," she fought back, leaving him speechless. She left herself speechless too. She hadn't realized until now that she had a memory he needed to understand what had happened, a memory she hadn't shared with him not because it was a secret but because long ago they'd made a deal never to speak of the incident they'd had in the Enchanted Forest with his mother. She'd never had reason to bring up the memory until now. She took another timid step down the hill and reached out, taking his hand in her own.

"Do you remember when you took that boy back in the Enchanted Forest?" she questioned. He didn't answer, but his eyes said that he knew what she was talking about. "She was the one who let me out of the tower you locked me in. She was the one who helped me come and save him before you gave him to the Black Fairy."

"I wasn't going to hand him over!"

"That's not the point!" she interrupted, making sure her grasp on his hand was tight. Now he couldn't go off on a tangent or simply walk away. "The point is that she told me even then that her powers against the Black Fairy were no good. That's why I had to save him, not her."

"She was lying to you so she wouldn't have to get in the middle," he growled, dismissing her charges and finally pulling himself from her grasp so he could move back down the hill.

"Then why else would she be attacked the way she was?" she argued quickly following after him moving to cut his footsteps off. "Do you think she wanted your mother to have our son? Or that boy? She knows the Black Fairy Rumple; she knows what she's capable of, why would she want to give Gideon to her?"

Rumpelstiltskin opened his mouth, but no words came for several seconds before he finally shrugged. "Her reasons are her own. Who are we to try and understand the minds of fairies. Especially that fairy…"

She shook her head at him. He wasn't the only one who had been wronged by a parent. Her father wasn't exactly on her list of favorite people in the world at the moment, but she didn't think all Kings were as hard-headed as he was! But clearly it didn't matter. Rumple's mother was a fairy and a wicked woman, to him that made all fairies wicked women. She knew that fixing that particular bias was not going to be fixed overnight, but she couldn't bear the feeling of the Blue Fairy taking the blame for something that she had done.

"This isn't her fault Rumple," she insisted again. "It's mine. I gave our son away, I sent him off with her and never considered the consequences. I was the one who allowed her to take him and now-"

"This isn't your fault Belle," he growled once more. "I didn't give you a choice; if you hadn't sent Gideon away, I'd have used the shears."

"And his fate would be far different from what it is at this moment."

"But it wouldn't be much better," he admitted softly. "We did this. Both of us. Together. Not..."

He gestured up the hill, but it was tot hat invisible place over her shoulder. He gestured, but couldn't, it seemed, bear to say the words "the Blue Fairy". She opened her mouth to say something, but couldn't find the words to express elation that he had nearly admitted it wasn't the Blue Fairy's fault, not when admitting that meant that he'd correctly placed it once more with her...them. They both bore the guilt of what had happened. At least they were seeing some things eye to eye.

"Rumple, this…this didn't work, but we had a plan," she insisted with a sniffle. "We can go back to that just as simply as before. We'll search the West woods today since we're already here, then make our way back around, just like we were going to do."

He nodded, but he didn't look any happier or more relieved at the situation. "Fine. But I don't trust her Belle. I can't work with her around."

This time it was her turn to nod, to remember and understand that he was not one to forgive quickly and the thought of Rumple and the Blue Fairy out here together with her all day…it gave her a headache just thinking about it. She wanted her baby back and if they had to stop every five minutes so she could break up a fight between Rumple and Blue, they'd never find Gideon. That left her two options. Either ask Mother Superior to leave, taking with her some of the power that she offered, or…

"So we'll split up," she concluded the words tightening her belly. She couldn't believe that of the two options that was what she'd come to, but she was desperate to find her son and three pairs of eyes looking in two different places would cover far more ground than the pair of them would in a day together. Besides, they'd already proved that they didn't have to be together to make things happen. They'd been responsible for what happened to Gideon and hadn't been together at all.

"Blue can come with me. I'll show her what we're looking for and she can set the same kind of sensing spell over the places that we find."

"And you think that she'll tell us if she feels something from them in the days to follow?"

"I do," she responded without hesitation. He may not trust the fairies, but she did. "I trust her, and you'd trust me with her, wouldn't you?"

His answer, or perhaps lack of one was enough to knock her back off her feet. In the past questions like that were always answered without hesitation "you're the only one I trust" or "of course I do sweetheart" as the only words he needed to prove himself. But there were no quick words with this answer. There were no words at all. A refusal from her to admit that she trusted him and a reminder that for once he held no trust for her either. It was a very ugly reminder of their very ugly falling out.

"You can trust me, Rumple," she muttered, trying to assure him more than remind him. The words were familiar, but while in the past she'd resented them because they meant she had to prove her loyalty she felt nothing but truth in them now. Now she really did have to prove her loyalty. He wasn't the only one who had to make amends.

Finally, he let out a sigh. "You more than her, at least." It wasn't exactly the vote of confidence she'd always dreamed of, but it was something.

She nodded. "I'll call you if we find anything," she promised honestly, before she turned back, intending to walk up the hill and explain what was going on to Mother Superior.

"And what about me?" he called after her before she could move two more steps. She turned back to look at him but wasn't quite sure what he was talking about. "You trust me to go alone?" he questioned closing the distance between them. "You trust I'll look for Gideon and won't scheme behind your back?"

"No," she answered quickly. That much still seemed very obvious to her. "No more than you trust me. But…it's like you said this morning. You can't gain what I'm not willing to give you."

"So this is you being willing?"

She swallowed hard and let her heart beat frantically against her ribs. It wasn't trust she was giving but rather a warning with a potential prize. She didn't trust him to go off on his own at the moment, but...if he could he do this and do as she wanted him to and not do something behind her back that he knew she wouldn't approve of then maybe trust could be earned. Not a lot. Not all at once. Building trust back up between them was going to be like getting Rumple to give up his bias on fairies. It was going to take a long time. It wasn't like flipping a switch. But maybe, little by little if she was willing to give it, he could earn it back. And maybe she could too. Hopefully, her small warning was enough for him to understand that. This was important. If he wanted trust back, then he couldn't let her down now. And she supposed that meant she was willing.

"Yes."

At her word, he let out a deep sigh and suddenly reached into his pocket. She was a little bit shocked by the motion and shook her head in confusion when she saw him pull the cell phone out. It was a really bad time to check for messages…but a moment later the cell phone in the pocket of her coat gave a little chime. She flipped her own open as he slid his back into his pocket.

It was the picture of the map. The same map he'd been holding ransom this morning, threatening her with if she didn't sleep and eat. She was sure to someone else the gesture seemed small and stupid, perhaps even necessary given their plan, but despite their lack of trust she knew him better than anyone in town, and she knew what this was. Each was taking a small step. She was letting him go off unsupervised trusting he would look for their son. And he was giving her the map trusting that she'd come back at the end of the day and not try to do this on her own, without him.

To say something as they stared at each other on the hill seemed silly and she couldn't think of the words even if she wanted to. In the end, she nodded, tucked the phone away and they both turned to go their separate ways.

Now it was time to see if they could fulfill the silent promises they'd made.

* * *

 **This is huge. Absolutely huge! Though it is something small it's a really big step for both of them. Up until this moment Belle and Rumple have, for lack of a better word, been babysitting one another. Belle can't trust that he's not going to lie to her and go off and do something she doesn't approve of so she doesn't want to let him out of her sight. Rumple doesn't trust that Belle is going to take care of herself and isn't going to do something rash so he's unwilling to give her the key, the map, to doing stuff on her own. So the end of this chapter is a really big step for both of them. And, to me, what makes it remarkable is that it's not an act done out of trust so much as it is a conscious act of trust, if that makes sense. They don't trust each other at this point, both are willing to admit that in this chapter, but they do this almost as an exercise in the trust they lack. Belle says "I don't trust you, but go off on your own and prove to me I can trust you". Rumple says "I don't trust you, but here's the map and prove to me that you can take care of yourself throughout this." What happens at the end of this chapter is small, but it has huge implications.**

 **Thank you to Grace5231973 and Fox24 for your reviews of the last chapter. You hit the nail on the head. The second topic that we'll be covering that I felt the writers left out of this section, was trust (as if I haven't talked about it enough yet). It just seemed to me that for them to go from "I don't trust you" in 6x11 to "You can trust me Belle" meant that obviously, something important had happened in the space between. In a few short chapters we're going to get to that chapter, I'm hoping that these little ones I place between those two scenes are going to make that scene a bit more...shall we say, "believable"? Peace and Happy Reading!**


	27. Domestic Tolerance

They searched for as long as they could; Rumple on his own and she with the Blue Fairy. The better part of their day passed in silence. Most of her focus was on the Blue Fairy and explaining what was going on, but searching the woods proved to be far more difficult than searching the town. The town was a grid, it was mathematical, point A met with point B, and there was the spot of blood they were searching for. The woods had no street signs, very few landmarks, and it was far more just like looking around and occasionally getting lucky enough to find what they were looking for. Rumple had wanted to do the South Forest the next day thinking it would be easy, they only just barely finished after dark.

"Anything?" she questioned hopefully when Rumple appeared out of the dark, walking toward the pair of them.

He only shook his head, unable to bring himself to say the words and unable to ask her the same question. She hadn't called him, so they both knew that he knew her luck had been the same.

"It's dark. Gideon will have learned well from my mother, he'll hide best in shadow. We'll go back to town and keep looking in the morning."

She didn't want to agree to it. It was dark but hardly early, she still felt wide awake! But in a shocking turn of events Mother Superior agreed and stated she'd go back to the convent to see if there was anything that could help them get past the magic Gideon was using to block his presence from them. She'd return in the morning with answers. The moment she disappeared Rumple made a snide comment about his doubt in that statement and she gave up hope of convincing him to stay and search a bit more with her. It was time to uphold her end of the agreement and return home.

"Going back to town" that night meant they simply retraced their steps and walked out of the forest and back to their home in silence. Now they had both upheld their bargains, but she found that she still needed something to do with her hands. Good food in the house was scarce, but she managed to find some chicken that she'd frozen what felt like a lifetime ago and began the process of thawing it out. After watching her for a few moments, Rumple muttered something in her ear about "coming right back," and she heard the front door slam. The temptation to go after him was great, but in the end, she realized that this was something that fell under being willing to give trust. She couldn't follow him around for the rest of her life. And, in truth, if he'd told her he was going out and then left physically, out the front door instead of by magic, it was probably a better sign than she could have hoped for. If he'd left wanting to do something she'd disapprove of, he'd probably have gone upstairs and turned on the shower to cover his disappearance before poofing himself wherever he needed to go.

So she stayed, there in the house alone, keeping her hands busy as she cooked. She was just done battering the chicken with the leftover pancake batter when he returned. She heard him drop a set of keys on the counter and he gently pushed a brown paper bag of fresh groceries beside her. Lettuce, cheese, celery, yogurt, sour cream…staples but not essentials. Everything in the bag had an expiration date.

"Bit optimistic, isn't it?" she questioned attempting to make some kind of joke, but her tone came out too sad for either of them to laugh.

"Maybe," he shrugged putting groceries away but keeping out some fresh corn to go with the chicken she was frying. "I brought the car back too."

She nodded, wondering if he'd found it in the place she'd put it after she returned from Zelena's and her failed escape before now, or if he'd had to track it and simply stopped at the store on the way back with it. She didn't care enough to ask. Not about the past. Not about anything that didn't concern their son. They finished making dinner together in quiet. She fried chicken, he boiled potatoes. She stirred the corn; he set the table. She mashed the potatoes; he seasoned the chicken. It was surprisingly domestic for two people who felt as they did about each other. They ate in near silence as well. The only time either of them was brave enough to start a conversation was when their son was the topic.

"I take it you and the fairy didn't find him in the woods either," he finally muttered. It wasn't a question, just a correct assumption that made her frown.

She shook her head. "I'd have called you if I did." Five minutes later she asked, "we'll try the West Woods tomorrow?"

He nodded. "Perhaps I'll examine the East and let you and the Good Mother take the West."

"Does she know?" The question had been eating her up inside since this morning, but she hadn't had a moment to ask it of him until now. "Does the Blue Fairy know who the Black Fairy is? That she's your mother."

"Oh, I suspect so," he answered. "Not that she were ever come right out and said it, but I have it on good authority that she tried to hide it from me as a boy. If there is one person in this town with more secrets than me, it is her." And that was the end of that. She had no interest in pursuing more of the conversation and he seemed to have no interest in drawing it out. When they finished dinner it was barely past eight but there was a twinge just behind her forehead, she was working on a headache, and she felt her body sag as they carried their dishes to the sink.

"Tired?" he questioned as she began putting the last of the food away and he turned on the water.

"A bit," she answered.

"Why don't you go to bed. I'll finish up here."

She didn't argue, merely finished her chore and left the kitchen. She thought before she left about talking to him, questioning him once more about what he was going to do this evening, but managed to stop herself. It was a matter of trust, and though she knew it might come back to haunt her, she walked up the stairs, found an old nightgown, and crawled into bed.

She did sleep, but it was restless. She was up and down, tossing and turning, all night long. But each time she woke she would be absolutely still for a few minutes. The glow the rose on her nightstand let off when the glass unfrosted beside her would light the room gently, and she would listen. Downstairs she heard small sounds. The tinkering of tools and little parts, a chair scraping as it moved in or out, every now and then she swore she heard soft mumblings of frustration or encouragement. The noises were music to her ears. It was assurance that he was still there, still home, keeping his promises. More than once she considered giving up on sleep and joining him, but he'd promised not to go off without her and she'd promised to take care. So instead she rolled over, and drifted off once more listening to the chorus of sounds he was making.

The next morning, she took her shower and changed though she did choose to wear the same shoes as yesterday so she wouldn't hurt herself in the woods again. Downstairs she found a radio sitting on a table in a state of semi-repair. He was drinking coffee and eating a bowl of oatmeal. On the kitchen counter, she found a kettle of water and a mug for tea. She was preparing her own oatmeal when he came into the kitchen, slipped his bowl into the sink and silently went upstairs to shower and change himself. Reality sobered her when she realized that she'd been expecting something like a kiss on the cheek before he'd left. Not because she wanted one, just because her body remembered it from happier days past. Maybe this arrangement was a little too domestic for their situation. Maybe they needed to consider alternatives to being in this house together and alone. It was too easy to fall back into routines and expectations like that.

Starting their morning was a relief. The Blue Fairy returned about the same time she had arrived the previous day and informed them that she had the fairies working on a solution around Gideon's magic. They would call her if they found anything. She prepared for a comment from her husband, even prepared the proper glare to give him when he made the unnecessary comment. But none came. Instead, they piled inside their car, drove to the West Woods and separated there, back to the work they'd started yesterday.

"Can I ask you something?" she questioned later that afternoon as she and Mother Superior walked through the woods. Yesterday their system for finding the things marked with Gideon's blood had been difficult, but eventually, they'd fallen into an easy one and it left them time now to talk as they moved through the woods, looking for their latest target. They were nearly done with these woods. She was certain Rumple was probably just about finished with his own. This was their last target on the map before they would have to move on to the South woods and she felt confident that the answer there would be the same as everywhere else. This wasn't working.

"Of course," Blue answered, her eyes stil busy scanning the trees.

"Why are you here? Why are you helping us after the danger I put you in?"

The Fairy shrugged. "Obligation? Guilt too, I suppose. I need to help find him. You put so much trust in me, I can't bear not helping to look for him knowing what's going on."

She nodded. "I just hope we can find him. I feel like this is just a game at this point. Nearly four days of searching and still nothing. The only time we've actually seen him, he's always been quick to leave with his magic."

"Well, what about the cuff? Maybe we could use it when we find him to at least contain his magic."

She couldn't even let herself think that. She wanted to talk to Gideon, to apologize for what happened the last time they met! She had a feeling that if she used the cuff on him, it would only lead to one more thing she'd be apologizing for. Besides, Gideon was powerful in a very Dark way. Peter Pan had been able to make it out of that cuff once before and that was his grandfather. The Black Fairy had to be stronger and under her tutelage she had a feeling it wouldn't hold him. They needed words, not more magic.

"Can I…can I ask you another question?"

"I'm happy to answer any question that might help us, Belle."

She felt her gut twist and looked around to make sure it really was just the two of them. Rumple was nowhere in sight. She felt wrong for asking, but couldn't come up with a reason for feeling that way. Rumple already suspected that she knew. What was the harm in confirming?

"The other day," she began, "you said you know the Black Fairy but…do you know about her? Did you know…did you know she had a child?" she finally questioned, determining that it was safe enough to simply ask that. This way, if she didn't know, she'd let nothing slip, and if she did know, then it wouldn't matter.

"Rumpelstiltskin, yes."

She nearly sighed with relief. So she did know then. She hadn't let on to his big secret. "You do know she's his mother."

"Of course," she explained as she began examining a tree in the vicinity of their last marker. She knelt down to examine the ground, looking for the small dot of blood, the needle in the haystack that she wished would reveal her boy. "Of course, that only makes this betrayal that much worse. I never would have expected she'd go so far as to kidnap her own Grandchild. It's an evil from her even I wasn't prepared for."

"Why does she want them? Who could harm a baby?"

"I'm afraid the Black Fairy doesn't think like you or me. She is a woman drawn to power and driven mad by it. It's turned her into a cruel being."

She fought back the urge to comment "like mother, like son" and was glad she did. It wouldn't have been an accurate statement. Rumple was a man drawn to power and driven mad by it. It could make him cruel, but he wasn't a cruel being. He just chose cruelty far more than she wanted him to, usually out of fear. She wished she could help him break that habit. She wished Gideon could.

"Found it!" the Blue Fairy declared from another tree. It was a small marking a foot or so above their heads. A drop of blood, but no Gideon. The Blue Fairy waved her hand over it, and the tree shimmered. Now, on the off chance that Gideon came back, they would know it. Not that he ever came back.

She sent a quick text message to Rumple, requesting to meet him where they'd separated, and she and the Blue Fairy walked back through the woods to that location. As they moved, she thought of what she'd said of the Black Fairy and how she said it. She was desperate to think of anything that might distract her from the fact that her son wasn't in her arms yet again.

"But…she can't always have been a cruel person. She had a child. She had to have known love at least one time. What happened to make her like this?"

The Blue Fairy sighed. "None of the other fairies know…sometimes something dark in us just comes to life and can't be silenced. It can come from all things. Love, greed, thirst, destruction...even maternal instinct."

"Belle!"

She perked up when she heard Rumpelstiltskin calling her name just ahead. With a glance toward Mother Superior, she bounded after the voice.

* * *

 **Yeah, one thing most Oncers will agree with is that Blue is and always has been shady. I'm at a loss as to how much of that was planned by the writers. The fairies just kind of seem like this willy-nilly group of beings that want to do good but are super selective about who they do good for. Does everyone get a fairy god-mother? Why do those that get them, get them? Are they special? Why didn't Belle get a fairy godmother to rescue her from Gaston? Can you get untold wishes from your fairy godmother? Or is it like Spiderman where everyone gets one? Just how powerful are they? I have a lot of questions concerning these fairies. I don't think they're bad really, but I just don't think their little coven was ever fleshed out enough for me to understand the good they are. Does that make sense? That being said, I tried to keep Blue shady in this chapter, because that is her character. Note, nothing she tells Belle at the end is a lie so much as "selective truth-telling". I think it's pretty in character for her, but what do you think? In character? Out?**

 **Thank you Grace5231973 and Fox24 for your reviews on the previous chapter. It is much appreciated as always and super encouraging to hear that everyone likes the direction we are going in! It's taken a while to get to this place, but I'm hoping these comments means that everyone thinks it's worth it. So with that-away we go! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	28. Shades of Gray

She dared to hope, to dream…

He hadn't called her like this; he hadn't shouted her name at the top of his lungs before now, maybe, just maybe he had finally found something! After all this time, their luck had to change eventually!

"Belle!"

"Did you find any sign of him?" she questioned immediately. She could hardly catch her breath, but she knew her heart was beating faster in anticipation of his words.

"No," he breathed with a small shake of his head.

And with one word it all crashed down. South, North, East…no sign of him. That left only one section to search, but she had no confidence that they would find anything different than what they'd found these last couple of days. This was a game, something to keep them busy and nothing more. She thought Rumple had broken her heart long ago, but the impact of this was nothing compared to the treachery she'd experienced at his hands.

"There's nothing in the North Woods either," Mother Superior informed him in the absence of her voice.

"Why am I not surprised you couldn't find him? Could it be because you were the one who lost him in the first place?"

"If you're looking for a Fairy to take your anger out on perhaps you should find your mother!" Blue shot back without hesitation. Her tone was strong but she could see the tears gathering in her eyes and hear the crack in her voice. His words meant more to her than she was trying to let on.

"Well, seeing as the Black Fairy is trapped in another realm, I suppose I have to make do with you."

And that comment alone meant that her words had touched on a nerve of his own.

But listening to the pair of them squabble was making her headache return. It made her quick to step between the two of them once more, just as she'd been doing for the last two days.

"The most important thing right now is finding our son," she insisted glancing at Rumple. The three of them discussing this was going to get them nowhere especially with the state Rumple was in. There was one more portion of the forest that needed searching and she had a feeling that he was just as doubtful of it as she was. The difference was that if she was upset she forced her emotions inward, he forced them outward and usually at the most available target. In this case it was the Blue Fairy. She glanced at her and squeezed her hands a small bit of encouragement and also a silent request.

"I think it's best if I continue to look on my own," she breathed before heading off in the direction of the west woods. Map or not she'd do fine on her own for a bit, be able to catch her breath and rebound from Rumple's verbal assault before she caught up with her again. But Rumple was different.

She and Rumple stayed by the bank of the small river than ran through this part of the woods. There was something on his mind, she could tell by the way he'd called out to her. If he just had to tell her he'd had no luck he would have used a phone.

"I'm beginning to think we're not going to find him out here," Rumple muttered.

Beginning to think? She wished she could share the same sentiment, but the truth was she'd been thinking that for days now and just not allowing herself to have those thoughts. If they didn't find him here then she honestly didn't know what else to do.

"Well, why? Where do you think he is?" she questioned, hoping he had some kind of idea they could go on. She didn't think he was here, but if he wasn't here then she had no other idea of where to look for him.

"His heart is set on fulfilling his destiny, and he can't do that without the sword."

Sword? He needed a sword?

"What sword?" she questioned. Surely not the sword that he'd attempted to use against Emma nights ago!

"The sword Emma shattered when he last faced her," he confirmed.

She only shook her head in confusion. That was in pieces! She couldn't even think about where it was at the moment!

"I don't understand, why does he think that killing Emma with this blade will make him the Savior?" she questioned.

"He's not the first one to think that wielding that sword will make him a hero," Rumple commented staring off into the distance and leaving her question unanswered. There was a darkness in his tone but perhaps more importantly in his eyes as he gazed out over woods, avoiding her gaze. He knew something. What, she couldn't be sure, but there was something there. Had he tried to use the sword in his past? Had he tried to be a hero using that sword? Did it matter? Did anything matter more than finding their son and making sure that he didn't fulfill his hearts desire? No. Speculation wasn't going to help them or Gideon. They had to focus on him.

"We have to find him before he gets his hands on it, before he goes after Emma again," she insisted. She didn't know why they were talking and not looking. They needed to find their son and if they didn't…that wasn't an option.

"I know," Rumple breathed glancing at her. "You can trust me Belle…I've already lost one son."

She had one foot up the hill to go after the Blue Fairy when his words stopped her. He did have a plan.

"What do you want to do?" she questioned skeptically.

"Go to the shop, maybe try to lure Gideon there or try to find him before he does something with that sword he can't come back from. Something dark."

"And how will you do that? What more could we be doing?!"

"I'll find him by looking for what he's looking for. I'll locate the sword."

She felt her stomach roll over when he mentioned the sword this time. No, they didn't have time to focus on anything that wasn't Gideon but if he wanted that sword…

"Why that sword, Rumple? What's so special about it?"

"It's called Hrunting," Rumple answered. "It's a sword forged in light magic, and for many years it was thought to bring power to the one who wields it, but in fact, its gift is that it isn't effected by the magic of its opponent, good or bad."

"So a wound from that sword…"

"Would be fatal."

So that explained why Gideon would need it to kill Emma, but it didn't explain why he thought he'd absorb her powers, and it didn't tell her why he had that dark look in his eyes.

"How do you know all this about that sword?"

"It's mine," he responded. "I took it off a man during the Ogre Wars, just after I became the Dark One. It had been handed down several times by then, but it's been in my possession since that day. You held it once, in my castle."

She shook her head, certain she'd never touched a sword when she remembered…

"The sword in the glass case?"

"That's the one. It was stolen from my shop not long ago, and the next time I saw it Emma had it when she attempted to fight Gideon."

And that fight was the reason that she was confused about going after the sword. "But it's in pieces," she reminded him. "It broke when they were fighting."

"It's a sword imbued with powerful magic. There are ways to restore it. If we can't track Gideon then I'll track the sword, I'll find it, and then Gideon will come to me."

"And if Gideon already has it?" she questioned. "We've been doing this for days Rumple, he could have found it yesterday."

"Well that's the beauty of all this, hopefully he's been so busy running from us the past few days he hasn't had time to collect it yet. Give me an hour or so to track the sword and then stop looking for him, let him come to me."

Suddenly she recognized something in his plan that she hadn't noticed before, a significant part of the plan that she hadn't caught on to until just now. He wanted to go. He wanted to find the sword. He wanted Gideon to come to him. In other words…

"You want me to stay here," she realized. "You don't think he'll come if I'm around."

He looked her directly in the eyes for a few seconds. It was not a look of anger or authority but rather one of sympathy that said he didn't want to say the words that would come out of his mouth.

"No, I don't," he finally whispered.

She let out an involuntary gasp of air and tried desperately to catch her breath again. She never knew just how much words could hurt until this moment, until hearing her son didn't want to see her felt like they cut right through to her soul. This was what hurt most of all.

"Why doesn't he want to see me?" she questioned aloud crossing her arms over her chest. She moved forward and stood closer to the river, wanting desperately to be alone with her thoughts. She understood that what had happened in the cabin wasn't good but he'd been angry with Rumple too! Why was she the only one he turned from? Was it because of the Black Fairy? Because in his mind that woman was his mother and she was just...nothing?

"Belle..."

"He's talked to you," she snapped over her shoulder. "He feels something for you, but for me-"

"He does feel something for you, Belle," Rumple muttered stepping up next to her. "It's because of that feeling that he doesn't want to see you. Because you remind him of what is right and good and he doesn't need those reminders to accomplish his goals. It's not you, Belle, trust me it's not."

"Is that why you always push me away? Because I remind you of what is right?"

Her brain sent out a message to keep that particular thought to herself, but by the time she received that message, it was too late and now the words that had nothing to do with Gideon and everything to do with them. They were looking at each other again. She wasn't sure when she'd stopped looking at the scenery and looked up into his face, or for how long he'd been staring back at her.

"You are light," he finally muttered quietly. "I've told you that before. And you certainly make it difficult to do certain things I once found simple."

She felt her cheeks redden as the corners of her mouth tipped upward. But it wasn't out of flattery, it was out of embarrassment and perhaps mourning for what she felt she'd lost.

"I don't feel light anymore, not after all this," she pointed out. "You know…all I want is to be good, Rumple. I don't want to be a perfect person I just want to be good and do what is right, but since all this started I can't seem to do any of that."

"Magic is light and dark, Belle, people are varying shades of gray; some lighter, some darker. Even with all of this you are still one of the lighter shades. A few mistakes can't change that."

She sniffled back a tears, but one of them managed to escape and tumble down her cheek. Beside her Rumple moved. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief before rubbing it under her eye. She reached up to take it from him and do it herself and at the faintest touch of skin had the urge to hold his hand there as she might have months ago. To take the bit of comfort that he offered. But she wasn't sure it was offered. Just as soon as she felt the touch it was gone. The handkerchief was left in her own hands and Rumple was shuffling awkwardly before her.

"Search the South Woods and then go home. I'll call you if I find anything."

At that he was gone from her side, moving back up and away from her leaving her with only the small favor he'd left in her hand. Kindness from the Dark One. Shades of gray...

"'Magic is dark and light, people are gray'…you know what that means!" she called after him. He stopped, his head turned back listening for what she had to say. Once more her mind screamed at her not to say it, to hold those words under lock and key for fear of what they might expose…but they seemed far to powerful to just keep inside her mind anymore. "You are a person Rumple, not magic. Having that curse doesn't make you the curse. Merlin said that dark magic could be used for light…maybe it just takes the right shade of gray to do it."

He stood still for a moment, just long enough to make her hope that he was truly hearing her and taking her words to heart. She took a timid step forward, what her intention was with that step she wasn't certain, but-

"Don't get your hopes up Belle," he stated clearly over his shoulder. "My shade of gray may not be black, but it's significantly darker than your own."

And with that final declaration, he walked three more steps up the hill and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

* * *

 **I do love this chapter. Not _the_ favorite (that's in a a few more chapters!) but certainly a favorite because I feel like this chapter is taking us a step closer to the Rumbelle we all fell in love with and really the reason that we fell in love with this show. Magic is light and dark. That's canon and has been from the very beginning, I can't change that. But I feel like even in season one the goal of this show was to show that even though magic is light and dark the characters are shades of gray. Villains act poorly to do good in their own way, heroes act selfishly to get good in their own way. It's why Regina can do light magic, why Emma can become evil, why Snow can do bad things, and why Rumple can use Dark magic for good purposes. I love this conversation they have, I feel like it's a return to something they might have said in the castle. Belle wants to be good but has learned since then it's not simple and despite it all Rumple still sees her as good. Meanwhile, Rumple just wants to find his son but still sees himself only as this dark entity, and Belle is stating the opposite once more, telling him that he isn't his curse. How's that for character development?**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, Fox24, Rumbellefan, and adaasgard for your reviews. I'm really eager to hear what you have to say about this chapter as well as the next few we have. The next, in my mind, is just as good as this! And, well, how did I do? We had a chunk of time that we had to cover where we give the characters something to do while running through the woods, get the Blue Fairy involved, and build up a little bit of trust between the pair again. There were a lot of blanks to fill in before we get off to the races again. How did it turn out? Peace and Happy Reading!**


	29. Prophecy Fullfillment

She was going crazy. She was sure she was going to go crazy. There was nothing else she could do but go crazy! She and Blue had finished their search of the woods a couple of hours after Rumple had left her. He'd only told her to do it for an hour or so but she hadn't been able to bear leaving the other half of the forest unsearched. In her heart, she knew she wouldn't find anything, but still, she just had to do it.

They found nothing. It wasn't exactly a surprise, but it was heartbreaking all the same. As they walked from the forest Blue promised that she would return to the convent, that she'd continue to research ways to find Gideon with the other fairies. She could see the hopelessness in her own eyes, but at least she was doing her best to try and sound supportive and hopeful; at least she was trying to be helpful. She'd disappeared as they arrived back to the car. With nowhere else to go and nothing she could do, she drove back home defeated. The house was empty and silent and eerie. She would have given anything to go into town, to help Rumple, to go to the library and read about this sword, Hrunting, he'd called it. But she resisted. He had a plan and expected that she could ruin that plan, though she didn't entirely trust him, she had the undeniable feeling that she had to let him make this attempt. But that didn't mean she had to bear the silence.

As tension flooded through her body she dealt with it the same way she'd always dealt with stress; she cleaned. She grabbed a bucket and gloves and bleach and scrubbed the showers, the bathroom floors, the sinks. She started a load of laundry, more his than hers. She swept the kitchen floors, dusted the mantle, and finally when she stood in the kitchen over the sink and felt tears begin to threaten to fall once more, she pushed herself up and began to fumble around for food. She cut chicken and celery and carrots and found some cream of chicken that she dumped into the crockpot and set to heat on low since she didn't know how long this was going to take.

She stayed one step ahead of her grief, so long as she kept moving. So it probably shouldn't have come as a surprise that her downfall finally came when she took the basket of laundry up to her room to fold. As she sat on the bed placing a dark purple dress shirt over a hanger she felt it catch her. It wasn't so much an assault as she expected, rather her sadness seemed to simply reach out, put it's hand on her shoulder, and seep into her skin and finally her soul. She bent over the bed, over the shirts she'd already placed on hangers and didn't fight it, just let what would come pour out of her. No tears. She was surprised by that, in fact, she had carried his handkerchief with her all afternoon in anticipation of something like this. But all that came out was a few short gasps as her body shook.

She was so tired of waiting. So tired of crying. So tired of everything. She let herself sit up on her bed and leaned back into the pillows. Next to her she sensed the glass of her rose grow crystal clear as the rose inside of it glowed bright and healthy. Wherever he was, he was healthy at least. Of course that wasn't a surprise being the Dark One. What she wouldn't give for that rose to reflect their son, to point the way to him…

Tired of waiting she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and sent him a simple text message.

 _Any updates?_

She clutched her phone tight in her hands, she held it over her heart, she waited for it to go off and tell her everything was alright…odd how she seemed to suddenly trust that it would be with just one promise.

When the phone finally did let off its sharp ring she jerked awake, suddenly aware that she'd slipped into sleep. For how long she wasn't sure but it was clearly dark outside. Not long. The clock on her phone told her it was only about two hours. Rumple was only just now responding. The message he left sent a chill straight through to her bones.

 _Something's happened with Gideon. Come to the shop._

She didn't question the order. She didn't call for details or stop to consider what might be going on. All she knew was that he needed her and there was a chance that their son was with him. She was in the car before she even realized she'd grabbed her coat. It was getting colder. There was a smell like snow in the air and clouds above her but every curiosity about something as silly as the weather faded and the shop came into view. She parked, unbuckled her seatbelt, and ran in without a second thought.

The shop was empty when she first stepped in and took a look around. There was a light on in the back. That was where Rumple was, but she knew he must be alone. It was quiet, much too quiet if Gideon was there. Still, he might have some kind of update, and she was eager to know what the message he'd sent to her meant. So she rushed forward to see if his plan had worked-

What she saw was shocking and unexpected, to say the least. It was the Blue Fairy! She was there, in the back room. She was laying on a cot, eyes closed. She looked dead, but she knew that if she was here it probably wasn't because she'd died. She'd read somewhere that in death fairies left their bodies behind for a pile of fairy dust. She wasn't dead, but she was obviously no better in whatever state she was in than when Rumple was in his coma! The last she'd seen of her she'd been in the woods determined to go back to the convent! How had she wound up here?! Like this?! "Something happened with Gideon", she recalled. What had he done to his fairy godmother?

"What happened?" she demanded looking down over her friend.

"Belle, I can explain," he began but everything inside of her was already rebelling against whatever he was about to tell her. He told her that he could trust her, that he was going to find Gideon and stop him! This was what happened?! This was how he kept his promise?!

"No! Rumple, you promised me! You said you would find Gideon before he did something he couldn't come back from!"

"Gideon didn't do this to her," he interrupted beside her. "I did."

He did. Two words turned her perception of the event on it's head. He'd done this to Blue?! But, that didn't make any sense. It certainly sounded like something he'd do in the past but given their present she just couldn't believe it! In the midst of their situation he'd harmed Blue? And then brought her here to confess? Gideon had been his number one priority since he arrived. And though he'd been angry with Blue this afternoon she couldn't see him deviating from that long enough to actually seek his revenge and even if he did it wasn't like him at all to call her to the scene of the crime and admit it all. Something just wasn't adding up.

"Why?!" she demanded.

"Because it was the only way to stop him from doing it himself," he explained. "If he had, then I fear he would already be lost to us."

And there it was, the missing piece before she'd even heard the tale. She didn't know exactly what had happened yet, he really hadn't given her any details of the event, but the piece story that he'd normally hide was what he'd laid at her feet. She knew that was exactly what it was because though she wanted the details of the incident more than anything, that was the detail that changed everything. The Blue Fairy was lying unconscious on a cot in the back of the shop! But whatever had happened to make her this way, it should have been Gideon's burden to carry, something he couldn't come back from…but it wasn't. His father had protected him and taken the burden on himself. Rumple had kept his promise. And more than that. He'd done a terrible thing but for the right reasons. She suddenly felt lighter as she absorbed his words and dissected them. Lighter? As her friend lay there? How was that even remotely possible?

"Once we stop him I can return her magic, no one need be hurt," he went on gazing down at the fairy. "Gideon has the sword now, he's more powerful than ever. He'll go after the Savior once again. I just hope it's enough time we can stop him before he does."

They would.

She was surprised by the flame she felt burning in her chest as she stared at him, by the tears that finally sprang to her eyes. Everything that he was saying should terrify her, should have her angry and hurt and in pain just the same way it had him! But it didn't. All day she'd been going crazy with anticipation and desire for knowledge. Now that she had her knowledge, nothing was better, and yet she felt all at once more hopeful than she had in months.

"We will," she stated glancing at him and urging him to look back up at her. Yes, there was a lot going on but the look she saw in his eyes now was a look she had seen only a few times and it made her determined. If he could do this, if he could use Darkness for Light, then there was nothing they couldn't do. And yet, by the look she saw on his face...couldn't he see that?

"For once, you put our son first. You darkened your soul so he wouldn't have to. If you can make the right choice after all the wrong you've done…then that means there's hope our son will too."

She wanted to say more, to thank him for what he'd done to tell him how proud she was of him but words failed her. All she found herself capable of doing at that moment was stepping forward and throwing her arms around his neck.

She didn't relax into the embrace the way she would have months ago, during a time when all she'd longed for was his arms around her body. But he did. There was a brief moment of tension in his shoulders, something she identified as shock, before he realized what was happening. Then it all faded, his back relaxed and his arms enclosed her. Tightly. He held her in a bone crunching vise and moved his head into a comfortable position, taking from her exactly what he had given her earlier that day at their last conversation. Comfort.

But she still couldn't relax. She felt her eyes go wide as she considered what she was doing and the implications of it. She wasn't just touching him, it was more than a passing graze of skin or holding his hand, and it was far more than when she'd fallen into him days ago, just after Gideon had reappeared out of exasperation at what had happened. This was more than all that. This was exactly what she could never have imaged doing again after everything that had happened. After the bracelet and the scissors…after Hyde.

Which reminded her...

She sniffled and pulled away from him. "It looks like you were right," she choked out, trying to force a smile. She hated to admit what she had to say, but she felt that not to would be an injustice. "I did need you after all."

His eyes were hazy and confused for just a moment, she could see him trying to think about when he had said those words. When recognition finally crossed his mind there was no trace of pride or happiness in his gaze, just something darker as he shook his head.

"No," he whispered lightly, boldly reaching out to touch her cheek the way she had wished she would have earlier. "I shouldn't have to be right," he muttered sadly. "I was angry then, Belle, but I promise I never wanted something like this to happen."

She nodded. Even after all the broken trust, she knew he was telling the truth. Truth might not mean much to him, but honesty did. If he was using those words, then he meant it. And she knew that after Bae, he never in a million years would have wished for something like this to have happened.

"All I want is for you to be safe, you and Gideon," he went on. "I know that sometimes I go about that in ways I know you wouldn't agree to-"

"Yeah," she chuckled pulling the handkerchief from her pocket and blotting her cheeks again. Her throat felt tight. "That's why you do it."

He gave a nod so delicate she wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't been paying attention. After a few moments of silence, he stepped forward and she felt his hands engulf her own.

"That doesn't mean I should do it though. Do you remember the conversation we had when I was human, here in this shop? I told you I didn't want your love out of need, that would be taking something that doesn't really belong. That was all true, Belle. I want your love, but I don't want it out of need. I want it because you want to give it to me. I told you I wanted the real story. I still want that. It's better than any fantasy I could ever craft out of need…at least not this kind of need. I'm sorry I forget that truth when I'm angry."

His words didn't help to take away her tears, if anything it made them worse. Love. She had such a love-hate relationship with that word! With him! She knew what love was and what it wasn't. She knew that he'd shown love in the last few weeks and that he hadn't. But worst of all she knew that he wasn't the only one.

"I'm sorry I tried to take Gideon from you," she choked out.

"I understand why you did," he responded gently. "I'm sorry I tried to do the same thing. We were both just trying to do what we thought was right, but while you were trying to do what was right for our son, I was trying to do what I felt was necessary to hold on to a family I'd already lost."

His voice trailed off as he glanced over at Mother Superior laying out on the cot. She'd never seen that much sympathy for the fairy in his eyes. She'd never seen that kind of guilt over anything. What an odd discovery, the more he seemed to lose hope, the more she gained it. And not just for their son.

She let go of one of his hands and stepped forward to put her hand over his cheek and draw his eyes back to her own.

"Maybe not yet…"

* * *

 **Another chapter I love! Still not _the_ favorite chapter (although we are getting incredibly close to that chapter), but I do love this chapter and I hope you will too. I'm hoping the end of this chapter makes some things better. In fact, I'd like to hope that the end of this chapter is the delivery of something we always wanted to see in the show, but never got to. I hated what he said to her on the dock in 6A. It was the only time I ever truly considered abandoning ship. I always said that if the show didn't fix it, didn't give an apology for those words, I'd have to find a time for it in my own fiction. Originally I had intended it for another conversation, but it just sort of arose organically here and they both began to make apologies for some pretty major things they've done. I'd like to think that this fixes a bunch of things...but as we all know there is only one judge (religion aside) and that is you the reader! I'll be eagerly awaiting your opinions.**

 **Thank you Grace5231973, Fox24, Paintbrush123, Rumbellefan, and Tamara Marshall for your reviews! What a joy it is to know that these chapters are going well. And like I promised, we are not over yet! More goodness to come in the chapters ahead! I hope you aren't getting tired of it yet! On to the next, Peace and Happy Reading!**


	30. Logical Compromises

"So..." she finally sighed pulling away from him when the power behind their locked gaze was too much to bear. "What happened to her? What did you do?"

Rumple sighed. "Hrunting. In order to repair it, Gideon had to get his hands on the magic of the person that forged the sword."

Her eyes went wide as she looked over at the nun on the bed. "Mother Superior!" she assumed. "She forged the sword?! You never mentioned that!"

"You never asked," he responded. Her heart raced as she fought to keep calm. She couldn't get angry. She still hated that kind of excuse, and it was true that sometimes he used it so that he could do terrible things but it wasn't like that all the time! Was this one of those times? Probably. He'd told her before he left that the sword could be reforged and if he knew that then she assumed that he knew how to do it. He probably hadn't told her because she would never have let him do…whatever it was that he'd done to Blue if she'd known. She'd have stopped him. Her mind was spinning. She'd have prevented him from doing the wrong thing to do the right thing? She'd never been more confused.

In the absence of logic, she managed to maintain her temper. She had to focus on the now and the future, not the confusion of the past. "So...she's like this because you took her magic?"

"Only most of it," he answered. "If I'd let Gideon do it, or if I'd taken all of it, then she'd be dead. The only way I could save her was to drain her enough to make Gideon think she was dead and then bring her back here."

She nodded as she looked at the body before her. As far as she was concerned the fairy was dead. Her chest was still as could be and she had a feeling that beneath the blush on her cheeks she'd find she was pale. If it wasn't for the fact that she wasn't dust, she'd have been convinced. It was fortunate for them, then, that Gideon didn't know fairies turned to dust when they died.

"How do you restore her magic? How do we wake her up?"

"Well, that's where things get tricky. She's not dust so I know it can be done but figuring out how will take some research."

"And the sword? If you didn't kill her then-"

"Will it be weak? Slightly. Enough to make it vulnerable but probably not vulnerable enough. I restored it as much as I possibly could without killing her. I didn't want to risk Gideon knowing and finishing the job himself."

"So what next? He has the sword. What's to stop him from going after Emma?"

"Nothing but logic. He's smart Belle. Brilliant. He's not going to just go after Emma because he feels like it, not like last time. He'll make her vulnerable first. He'll make it so he doesn't fail again."

"Well…that means we're right back to where we were. Try to find him, stop him."

Rumple shook his head. "I don't think that'll work anymore Belle. I've seen him, I've talked to him. This isn't just about talking to him this is a fight for his soul."

"And how do you propose we go about this fight?" she asked slowly.

He sighed and moved away from her, around the table as if he wanted to put distance between the two of them. That wasn't a good sign. "Gideon isn't doing this without reason. There is a purpose for it; I know there is. He wants Emma's magic, and I can't see him wanting the magic of a Savior unless he wanted to save someone."

"Yes, he…he mentioned that. There was another realm in need of a Savior. What realm? Why does he think it has to be him?"

"That, I believe is where you come in."

"Me? You think he's doing this for me?!"

"No…" he shook his head sadly. "We've been treating Gideon like our son all this time."

"He is our son."

"But maybe the key to all this isn't treating him like our son," he insisted. "I think the next steps are to start treating him, this entire situation, like we would any villain."

"No!" she rejected immediately. She couldn't even believe the words coming out of his mouth. Treat Gideon like a villain? Did he know what that entailed? What that meant in a place like Storybrooke? Gideon wasn't familiar with any of this and she wasn't about to subject him to it! Wasn't the whole point of working together to save him from it? To find him before Emma did and they treated him like a villain?

"Rumple, Gideon is our son!"

"And wandering around Storybrooke looking for him so we can get a few words in isn't working. We need to know him, why he's here what he's trying to do. Whether this is his idea or another's, he is a puppet. His strings are being pulled by another, he may not even know it."

"The Black Fairy," she assumed as Rumple nodded. "But…how? Why would she want Gideon to be a savior?"

"Those questions are what we need you for," he responded. "This is fighting evil, and I've never been on this side of the fence before, not completely, not with anyone else. What do we do? What would heroes do?"

She felt the arms around her chest tighten as she finally realized what he was asking her and the significance of it all. After what happened at the cabin, her memories of that were not good ones.

"Well…" she swallowed. "It depends who you ask. David and Killian are happy to go in swords waving. Emma and Snow always want to think about the battle and use words to solve problems, but we've been trying that with Gideon and getting nowhere."

"I'm not asking them" Rumple interrupted. "If I wanted their help or thought it would be useful, I'd be out there talking to them, but I'm talking to you. I want to know what you would do."

She sighed as she moved to the table and stood opposite him. "You know me well enough to know what I'd do. Books and truth. I'm the researcher. I try to understand the magic, the history, and the meaning of it all. Only then do I believe that the best strategy is possible and swords if necessary have the best chance."

"Then research it is," he stated.

She snorted in amazement, recalling easily the last time that they'd been in this shop, or rather, the Underworlds copy of this shop, and he'd rejected her ideas on research and theories with such fervor it had nearly made her sick. This was like a different man than that one was and yet not a stranger to her at all. This was the man she'd known long ago, who had magic and was cursed but wasn't owned by it. If Gideon wasn't in the state he was in, she'd nearly have jumped for joy. Up until now, she'd been sure that the man she fell in love with was truly gone for good. This made her hesitate.

"You really want to do this?" she questioned with utter astonishment before she could stop herself. "The last time I suggested something like this-"

"Last time we were once again working to save our son, and wrestling with a dominance of opinions. Clearly what we did last time and how we behaved failed him and destroyed whatever we were. Logically we shouldn't do it again. Unless we want the same results as last time, of course, and I know I do not."

He explained calmly. Logically. She nodded. There was no flaw to what he was saying, at least not to her ears. And she certainly didn't want things to end as they had in the Underworld either. He was right. They had been trying to save their son but in selfish ways. He'd been trying to prove he could be both the Dark One and Rumpelstiltskin and she'd been trying to prove he didn't need Darkness in his life. Looking back, Gideon had been secondary, to both of them. Not this time. It was time to do what was necessary to get their son back. Whatever was necessary. And that meant not letting history repeat itself.

"We should…we should go to the library," she finally stuttered taking her eyes off of him. "We need to look into the Black Fairy, and it wouldn't hurt to figure out a way to wake Blue. I'm sure there are books there that can help us."

"I'm not so sure," he muttered casting his gaze downward. She knew that look! It was guilt! She'd only seen it on him a few times but there was no doubt in her mind that was what it was. He knew something that she didn't. What wasn't he telling her?

"Rumple?"

He sighed, and perhaps sensing that the worst of what he had said was out in the open moved out from around the table to stand by her side. "The library might be able to tell us how to help the good sister, but we have to have priorities and right now, I think we can both agree, Gideon is the priority."

She nodded slowly, unsure about where exactly this speech of his was taking them.

"So then books on the Black Fairy must come first. And for that, there is only one place to go. I'm going to need you to trust me one more time, Belle," he whispered holding his hand out for her.

She didn't have a clue about what he was talking about. But he was talking about it, he was clearly preparing to show her what he was talking about and that all on its own was a change. This wasn't a plan that he had for himself, this was a willingness to share that plan and include her in it. This was working together something that she'd always wanted to do and yet had never succeeded before for one reason or another. Could they do it? Could they put aside the issues in the past and both be willing to try the exact opposite in order to succeed?

He'd already given her an answer in taking a step forward and holding out his hand. Now it was her turn.

"Let's go," she muttered before putting her hand in his.

* * *

 **Well...I figured while they were making confessions they may as well talk about what happened in the Underworld. And by "talk about", I mean "fess up to" because we all know that what happened in the Underworld wasn't because they made Gideon the priority. Sure, they were fighting for him, but they were also using fighting for him as an excuse to fight with each other. They were both struggling for dominance in their relationship, for their opinion to come out on top. They both did it, and we all know it. And in the end, that was what set everything else in motion. Their unwillingness to work together and be open to another's ideas without bias. The fact that they both admit this here and now is certainly a good thing. And the fact that they're both determined not to let it happen again and work together is a better thing.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, Fox24, and Rumbelle for your reviews on the last chapter. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to hear that everyone is liking where this is going and how we're rebuilding. I told you it would get good after the first section! More to come in the chapters ahead! Spoiler, in this chapter I feel like Rumple is doing a lot of the conceding, but in the next chapter Belle has her turn so it really is a compromise in the end! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	31. Understanding the Past

They reappeared by magic in a stranger place than she'd expected. Of course, it was only strange because of how familiar it was.

"The hallway?!" she blanched looking around their home. It was lucky, in a way. Now that she was here she could smell the soup that she'd started to cook in the crockpot and hadn't realized until now she'd forgotten to turn it off. Of all the questions she had, all the thoughts going through her mind, it was odd how the thought that it was a miracle the soup hadn't burned was foremost.

"Not even I can enter the basement by magic," he muttered drawing her attention to the basement door in front of them. He unlocked it with his key then stepped back and motioned to her. "If you will..."

His invitation was clear and she reached out for the handle. The metal beneath her palm heated then cooled at her acceptable touch she opened the door so the two of them could venture down into the basement. It hadn't really changed much from when she'd been here last week hoping to find some kind of cure for the water that the Evil Queen was threatening the town with. But that thought was enough to make her head spin and stop her before she even got off the bottom step. She counted backward. Ten days. Ten days ago she'd been in this room fearing that he'd come down and find her, and now here she was, in his presence once more, voluntarily and almost comfortably. How could things change with so little time?

"Belle?" he prodded, bringing her back to the present.

"It's nothing," she commented finishing her walk and looking around the small confines of his private laboratory. She immediately when to the books. That was what this was all about, wasn't it? He said the books they needed weren't in the library, so she assumed…

But he wasn't looking at the books on the shelf as she was. In fact, he was on the opposite side of the room entirely, looking at a blank wall.

"Rumple?" she questioned going to stand by him. "What's this?" she asked. She was smart enough to know that if he was staring at the masonry with that kind of focus, it was not what it appeared.

He didn't answer her question. Instead, he took his finger and drew it around the concrete of the stone before him. Before her eyes it melted away easily, leaving the brick loose and exposed. He pulled it out. The hole it created was dark and far bigger than she expected, but she could see something, just at the end of the little hideaway he'd uncovered. As Rumpelstiltskin wandered away, she reached inside. It took nearly her entire arm and she was worried she'd have to get a step stool just as her fingers closed over the something at the other end. She got her grip and pulled.

Books. Two of them. Both with jet black covers and approximately the same size. Both were written anonymously. The first was titled _Heart of Darkness: A Theory on the Mythical Black Fairy._ The second bore no title at all and it looked to be the older of the two, though it would be difficult to tell for certain because of their condition.

"Rumple, what…what is this about?" she questioned looking them over. She knew what they were, but their presence here and the way they were stored was something she couldn't quite understand. "What-"

"I researched for many years after I lost Bae," Rumple muttered. When she looked up, she found him hunched against the table, the stone by his side. He wasn't looking at her; merely at the wood surface he'd put nearly all his weight on. His knuckles were white, but she could already hear the agony in his voice from one small phrase. "Hundreds of years of plotting requires research, but after the Blue Fairy told me there was a curse that might bring me to this land I wasn't about to go about it blindly. First to find the curse, second to understand it. One day, in my research I came across a line in a book, suggesting that the curse's origins lay with none other than the Black Fairy.

"I'd known she was my mother from a very young age. My father preferred to tell the world she was dead, he preferred to tell it to me as well, but one day…a fairy finally took pity and told me who she was. I knew who she was, what she was. But I'd never, in all my years of research had read such a thing as that sentence.

"I didn't want to, but I knew for Bae's sake I had to be certain, I had to understand exactly what I was working with, where it came from. I knew of only one way to gain the upper hand in a confrontation like that. Surprise. So I stole a boy, took him from his parents for I knew exactly what the Black Fairy would appear for. I had a maid translate a passage for me that was required to draw attention to her, and I waited. I had intended to ask her about the curse, its origins, what it would be like, perhaps even why she'd created it but when I finally saw her for the first time in years, it felt like…it felt like there was a hot iron, burning inside my chest. And dark as it was that night, all I saw was white the minute she appeared in the trees. The questions came out wrong, and I never found out exactly what I wanted to."

She was staring open-mouthed at him. Though she was breathing slowly she felt her heart racing. Time was non-existent as a mystery she'd never thought to explore finally fell into place.

"That's the reason you took the child," she realized. "You wanted to ask your mother about the Dark Curse."

"I intended to," he answered emotionlessly. "But the questions never came."

No, they hadn't and…how could they?! After centuries, he saw his mother for the first time! How could he not think he'd be overwhelmed by what he'd felt then? Bae was important to him but the two of them together that night had been a live wire, exposed and dangerous, a potentially lethal combination. Of course, the questions hadn't come out right.

"After that night, after the deal we made never to discuss it again, I decided that it wasn't just you I was making the deal with, but the world. In the Enchanted Forest, I destroyed every book I could find on her. These two, I'm afraid, are all that's left…"

She looked down at the two books in her hand and had a moment of disbelief that he could destroy all but two books in the entire Enchanted Forest on one subject! But when she recalled how angry he'd been that night, just how disappointed and sad all at once…for a man of his powers it didn't seem all that unbelievable. She ran her hands tenderly over the covers of the books before her, seeing them as unique and precious because despite the content she now knew they were her only chance to perhaps have questions about her son answered. Part of her wanted to feel angry at that, but another part of her, a larger part, felt sympathy for him and understood all too well why they were gone. Mostly.

"Why these two?" she questioned gently, only to see him sigh and slouch as if defeated once more.

"I don't know."

She swallowed and accepted the information for what it was. It wasn't often that she saw Rumpelstiltskin genuinely confused, but she saw it now. And she understood. Perhaps the only one in Storybrooke who could figure it out was Archie, but she didn't exactly see him going willingly to see him at the moment, and even she had to admit that finding that answer would take far more time than they had. For the moment, this was all they got…and maybe a bit more. She knew it might be dangerous to mention it to him, considering what he'd said, but he wasn't angry now. He was just sad, and for once she had the confidence that on this one subject if she had to, she could work her own brand of magic and reel him in if the knowledge took a turn for the worst.

"I've read about her before," she stated. "There are other books that mention her, I found a couple when I was researching Zelena's time travel spell."

"If I destroyed every book that mentioned her there would be no more left. I was satisfied to rid myself of her only by destroying books about her."

So the information might still be out there somewhere, hidden away in another book. They just had to find it. That was fine. She could live with that. It was the same kind of research she'd been doing for most of her life.

"We'll take them with us," she muttered, reaching out timidly and touching his clenched fist because she was sure if he didn't soften it he would start to break his own bones. "We'll guard them, and afterward you can do what you want with them…hide them, destroy them…unless…unless you want them kept in this room?" she altered quickly, remembering an incident not long ago when he'd been upset for using his private stores as a library, checking them out and back in at her own will. She understood now, and these two books, more than any others, required permission first.

He nodded, tense and swift. "We'll take them with us," he agreed quietly. Still, his hands wouldn't soften, and she looked around the room quickly, trying to find an adequate discussion that might lead them away from this conversation.

"While we're here we…we may as well gather up a few more to help us with Mother Superior and…I made soup. Maybe we could pack it up, and we'll go back to the library for dinner and…and research?" she suggested in a tone that she hoped meant he would go along with it.

After a few moments of silence, he nodded and left her alone in the basement to gather her books and her thoughts.

* * *

 **More progress! Let one thing be known, I really did like the past story told in 6x09. That being said, the premise of it annoyed the crap out of me. It wasn't the storyline that bothered me, but rather the placement of it in the timeline that was a headscratcher. Rumple is crazy about finding Baelfire, but pauses everything just to randomly confront his mother? For what reason? We're just supposed to believe he woke up one day and said: "I think today is the day I'll finally talk to my mother?" Honestly, if they'd had him do it while Baelfire was around that would have made more sense but in the middle of his search for Baelfire, for no reason whatsoever? It never sat well with me. I had to figure out a reason to make it so, something that would finally spark that urge in him to contact his mother, or trick her as it were. I hope that my excuse sits well with you as well, especially because you'll be seeing it again in the Dark One Chronicles! (If you choose to read Rumple's story, of course.)**

 **Thank you, thank you, thank you to Grace5231973, Fox24, Paintbrush123, and Rumbellefan for the reviews you've been leaving me! Much appreciated, as always. As for what I said in the last chapter, about how Belle was going to give her half of the compromise in this chapter. It's not all that obvious, I know. But the issue in working with the Underworld was that Rumple didn't want to consider Light magic and Belle didn't want to use Dark magic. In the previous chapter, Rumple gave in and was willing to do the research, in this chapter Belle is willing to work with Dark magic, these dark books about the Black Fairy. Not a huge thing but big enough, in my mind, to be considered progress! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	32. Steps Become Strides

Her head hurt. And it wasn't exactly a complete mystery why. Why Rumple had kidnapped a child and questioned his mother in those woods had always been a curiosity, but a distant one. It was a curiosity that she didn't often trip over and when she did was all too happy to let lie just because she was unwilling to reopen wounds that she hoped were healing. After tonight, after seeing him and hearing about it she was sure that they were not healing, but rather festering deep underneath his skin. They were going to have to talk about it. But not now, not in the midst of all this. With those two books staring at her from the table, she knew that any time they were within sight was easily the wrong time to have those discussions.

And so she began to search his stores for other books that might help them, books that she thought might enable him to look for a way to bring the Blue Fairy back from whatever magic Rumple had put her under to save her life. When they got back she'd let him do that research, and she'd read the books on his mother. Doing things the other way around was simply too much to ask of him. She just hoped, prayed, that the two lone books that had survived his angry persecution would be enough to help them.

She already had a healthy pile of books prepared to go with them when he came down the stairs with a large container of soup in hand as well as a couple of bowls and spoons. Without thinking she was quick to fetch a picnic basket from the corner of the basement and help him load them inside for safe and easier transport.

"I turned off the crockpot and cleaned it out. This smells delicous," he whispered as they finished.

"Thank you," she stated proudly. Cooking was one of the things she would always enjoy but very rarely got to because of the life she led. It was nice to know she still had the touch. At least in some ways. The moment he picked his eyes up he was staring down something at the other end of the table and glanced over to find that the two books on the Black Fairy were set apart from the other pile, staring at him. She sighed and quickly moved around the table, picking up the small stack she had put together and dropping them on top of the other two books. Out of sight, out of mind.

"We'll keep these in my office, under lock and key. We don't want to run the risk of anyone getting in to see them."

"You think a key will keep Gideon out?" he muttered as she continued to gather.

The comment seared her heart because she hadn't really wanted to say what she really thought. But not saying it seemed just as impossible so long as he didn't come to the proper conclusion on his own.

"No…I think the fact that I'm there will though."

"Oh, Belle-"

"Do you really think that your mother is using Gideon?" she questioned quickly, because the sympathy and reasoning in his voice for just those two words was too much to bear. She didn't deserve sympathy and she didn't want to be reasoned with. He'd already expressed to her several times that Gideon didn't want to see her. There was no point in trying to ease that burden or deny it now. "Do you really think that she's talked him in to all of this or put the idea in his head?"

"I do," he sighed after a moment. "Simply because I don't think he'd be able to be here if she wasn't allowing it at least in some way."

She nodded her head, suddenly recalling the words he'd said in the pawn shop that hadn't made sense to her at the time. "'So whether it's her idea or his idea this is part of something bigger.'"

"Precisely," he responded. "Those in the Dark use all kinds of tools to extract vengeance and and their version of justice. People are just more of those tools."

Though they were talking about her son it wasn't his face that came to mind. It was the Evil Queen's face. It was the way he'd explained to her that she'd wanted him to suffer and had used her to do it. She hadn't believed him at the time, but now…now she truly wasn't sure.

"The way the Evil Queen used me, and my pregnancy, to get back at you?" she questioned cautiously.

Though he'd been busy sorting through books she watched as he glanced up at her with a look of amazement, but quickly looked away again, as if he was trying to hide that reaction.

"Are you saying you believe it wasn't me who used the dust on you then now?"

She felt her heart race as she watched him. Maybe she should never have said something in the first place. Talking about things like this never made her feel particularly comfortable.

"Part of me still wouldn't put it past you," she admitted honestly. "But part of me still can't understand why you would have gone through all that trouble when you could have simply used it on the elevator. You would have known you'd be the first suspect so why bother to do it in in secret?"

She waited for a response, but none came and with each passing second she felt her nerves flare a little bit more. These conversations were dangerous because they could lead to places neither of them wanted to go, but in some ways she felt like they were the most essential thing in the world. Answers would never be revealed and truths would never be spoken if they didn't occasionally prod at their wounds to get the infection out.

"Why didn't you?" she finally burst out.

"Use the dust on the elevator?" he questioned. "Because I'm not a complete fool. I know the fire in your eyes when you are honest and you were on that elevator. If I'd have done that you would never have forgiven me and I would have lost you both in my efforts, which would have defeated the purpose. I knew better than to do it after that."

He laid it out so calmly, so logically and rationally but what got to her wasn't the fact that his voice was unwavering or his answer so well thought through, it was the look in his eyes. She knew that look.

"You are telling the truth," she breathed as she came to the realization. "You…you didn't do this."

"No," he confirmed with a whisper. "It was someone far more jealous and dramatic, someone who knew you would hate me if I did such a thing and knew you'd assume it was me."

"The Evil Queen…she did this to me!" Her hands went unconsciously to her belly, the place Gideon had been but no longer was. She should have known it since he'd told it to her. She should have believed him days ago. But it took until now. Now she believed it. And she hadn't understood that part of her disbelief had come from a desire for it to not be true. She'd thought, truly believed that her days of torture and cruelty at the Evil Queen's hands was done. Now it was obvious that was only a dream. Even with Regina as she was, she was still finding ways to torture her in the worst possible way. She felt the prick of tears at the corner of her eyes.

"I rejected her." She glanced up to find that Rumple had moved from one end of the table to the other, to stand by her side. "I imagine she wanted me to feel the sting of that. If she couldn't do it herself then she knew just as she did all those years ago to use you."

"She's the reason Gideon is gone…I was her tool." Then and now. She remembered the hurt she'd felt years ago when he'd first confessed that Regina had told him that she was dead because of him, using her once more to make him hurt and suffer. She hated being used for such a dreadful task. And she hated most of all that it was her son that was paying for it. What an awful woman!

"Was she worth it?" she questioned, regretting the words the instant they left her mouth. They were never meant to be spoken, just a stray thought that she hadn't had time to keep in check. She couldn't help it. Last time, in the Enchanted Forest, had been one thing but this time around she was very aware that his relationship with the Evil Queen was far more than it had been. She'd told herself at the time she wasn't jealous, that she didn't care, and he was free to have whoever he wanted. But she did care. The thought that he'd gotten into bed with the woman who had used them both so terribly...it made her sick.

"She was my tool, Belle," he admitted in a low voice. "I used her to manipulate the situations I was in and in turn she did the same thing. It cost me more than it ever has. I played into her hands, I made it easier for her to manipulate you."

"Not even you have that kind of power," she argued trying to wipe her eyes.

"No?" he questioned. "What made it so easy to believe that I would use such magic on you after all the times I promised I wouldn't? If I hadn't acted the way I did then you wouldn't have felt like I was the one who sped up your pregnancy, you wouldn't have felt that there was no other alternative than sending Gideon away. If it wasn't for me and for that cuff…"

Without hesitation he reached out and took her bare arm from where it had been on her stomach, he looked at the place the golden bangle had once resided. He studied the skin there, moved his thumb tenderly over it as he hadn't when he'd put it on fast and rough.

"If I hadn't put that cuff on you then you would be safe in the Enchanted Forest right now, still carrying our son safe."

She shook her head, unable to stop the tears that were pouring out of her eyes anymore. "But we'd be away from you…you would never know your son."

"I would…we both know I'd have found you eventually. Maybe, after I'd cooled down…I'd have had the opportunity to make things right again. Instead of…instead of what we're doing now."

What they were doing now? What exactly were they doing now? Rescuing their son? She wasn't quite sure if this conversation was going to help Gideon or help them understand their son. It was just blame shifting. Her fault, his fault…for once, maybe the first time since all this began she was finally willing to see that it might have been not just her, but both of them. Together, from separate beds and houses, they had crafted the perfect storm that allowed the world to tear them apart. It was what they promised would never happen.

"The Evil Queen…she was nothing, Belle. She wasn't worth this because she was worthless, nothing to me. Just a tool."

"I can't judge you," she interrupted quickly, partially because thinking about it made her stomach turn but also because it wasn't long ago that she felt she'd been in the same position. "You were barely gone six weeks, and I had Will," she reminded him.

He let out a sigh and turned away from her, as though those memories, those thoughts of her with Will, were just as painful to him as thoughts of the Evil Queen with her husband were to her. She couldn't judge, but she also couldn't help but be angry. Though perhaps angry was the wrong word. She'd never really experienced the emotion before, but she was quite sure this might be what jealousy felt like.

"Six months of marriage and we're already having affairs," Rumple muttered around the table.

"Affair..." That word felt like poison running through her blood and made her shiver. It was such a horrible act to commit against someone dearly loved. But…sick as it made her she wasn't entirely sure that was what had happened. Her legs shook with every step, but eventually she made her way over to his side of the table and rested her back against it beside him. "I don't think that's the right word," she refuted. "Affair suggests something deep and passionate. Will was…he was just a friend. He was a friend and I let things go farther than I should have with him."

Beside her Rumple snapped to attention. Tension moved over his body and he looked down at her with wide eyes.

"You told me nothing happened?" he stated with a twinge of panic and hurt in his voice.

She had said that, and she'd meant it, but naturally he'd assumed something far more than she'd meant.

"A few meaningless kisses," she assured him. "Nothing beyond that. But…that doesn't mean it wasn't too far."

Will was her friend. A good friend. She should have kept her relationship with him one of friendship instead of complicating it further with romance. She was certain wherever he was, whoever he was with, he probably felt the same.

"I wish I could say the same thing," Rumple muttered beside her.

Now it was her turn to feel tension, for shivers to run down her back and fire to be in her heart. She wondered. She had so many visions, images in her head that she didn't want there. And she knew, truly she did that she had no right to ask after the way they had treated each other. But she couldn't live with those images in her head. She didn't want to if they weren't true. And if they were...then she would have to figure out how to live with it.

She tried to swallow but the lump in her throat wouldn't allow it and she could scarcely breathe as she opened her mouth.

"How far…" she was incapable of getting any more words out than that, but they seemed to be enough.

"We never slept together," he stated quickly, jumping right to the target she was aiming for. Almost instantly she felt a sense of relief spread through her body, leaving behind an odd tingle and weakness through her fingers and arms. Not all of them, but some of the images her mind had conjured up, vanished almost right away. She wouldn't have had to forgive him for it, but she would have had to remind herself every day that due to the circumstances it wasn't something she should have had to forgive him for. Looking past it, on the other hand, she might have been able to eventually, knowing that whatever they'd done was nothing compared to what they shared, but the idea that he would have given himself over to the Evil Queen like that, shared something they had shared…it was unthinkable. It had taken him months to convey to her just how little his time with Milah meant compared to their own. She was relieved she didn't have to consider or wonder about the Evil Queen anymore.

"I was using her to get what I wanted, using her to have an ally and using the promise of that particular act for temptation," he admitted. She was surprised to find those were all things she could live with. "But…that doesn't mean that promise wasn't too far."

So neither were free and clear, both would have guilt to live with. But it was guilt that she felt, she hoped, they could come back from…if she wanted to come back from it, that was.

Suddenly aware of just how close the two of them were standing, her skin felt hot, and flushed. She had to take a step away and look elsewhere because she was afraid. She was afraid of what she'd done, of what he'd done, afraid of the truth standing between them, and most of all afraid of the truth that lay in her own mind. Did she want to come back from all this? After two weeks of growing so far apart she'd sworn they'd never be together again, could she be back to where she was in that dream? Wondering to go on or not? Could she do it this quickly?

The memories of the last two weeks made her look around the room until her eyes landed on something she had questions about but hadn't been able to ask him because she was too angry to look at him much less have a conversation with him. But maybe…now? After all this?

"Can I ask you something?" she questioned timidly.

He nodded, still unable to meet her gaze. "Anything."

With a sigh, she pushed herself off the table and went to the chest where the Dark One Chronicles were still contained.

"When the Evil Queen was threatening the town with water from the River of Souls I snuck in here to do some research and I found…this," from within she pulled a book that she recognized out and opened it to the pages she'd seen before, the ones with maps and details all of the Underworld. She handed him the book and watched his face.

"It's dated just after we were married...before we went to the Underworld. What is it?"

He glanced over the pages, then up to her, and finally back down to the pages. "It's from my first trip to the Underworld. After I killed Papa," he explained. "After I was free of Zelena I couldn't sleep, I'd lost my ability to see the future after I died because that wasn't an ability of the Dark One and so it didn't endure. After we went to bed and you slept or when I had nightmares I'd come down here…I'd write down what I could remember, try to decipher a future I could no longer see. All I saw after that were enemies. Everywhere. That's why I tried to do what I did…I just wanted to be in that safe spot again. I wanted to feel the security that seeing the future had once allowed me to have."

She closed her eyes in solace trying to reign in every emotion she felt at those words. They explained a lot, truly they did. She was grateful to have the knowledge that she now possessed about it but explanations did not always warrant forgiveness. Trying to kill every man, woman, and child in Storybrooke because all he saw were enemies and he wanted to be safe from them explained the situation. But that didn't mean that every man, woman, and child in Stroybrooke were enemies and deserved to be killed so that he could have his safety back. Not when there were other ways. Not when there was one way that had woken up at every nightmare and tried to understand.

"Why couldn't you talk to me?" she breathed, managing to contain her anger. "I was right there, Rumple! I asked you all the time, I sat up with you, I tried to help. I would have listened!"

"It's difficult to explain," he muttered, closing the book and putting it aside. "I love you. And I trusted you all those times! I knew that here," he explained putting a hand over his chest. "But getting the message here," he tapped the side of his head, "that was always a far more difficult thing to do after years of isolation and broken relationships."

She knew that. She understood that. She was prepared for things to take time. But it wasn't permission for him to return to magic so he could avoid her. That was what led her to feeling like she was the other woman while magic was his true lover. She didn't want to be second to magic.

"We need to talk more," she muttered. "To be more willing to face our problems together, with each other, than others…or magic."

"I agree. Now. But…at the time it always makes perfect sense not to talk to you, Belle. I come up with reason upon reason not to do it. It's always after that I regret it in some way."

Well then, that was the hint then wasn't it. The way to know what he should and should not tell her…the answer was right in front of him. And her. Over the last few weeks, all the secrecy, the sneaking around, the desperation not to have Rumple find out…how much of that could have been avoided if she'd just gone over to the Pawn Shop and had a conversation with him about their son?!

"Maybe it's the moments that we don't want to talk to each other that we need to the most," she observed.

They stared at one another for a long time. It felt like several long, quiet minutes, perhaps wondering or waiting for what the other was going to say. But nothing ever came out of their mouths. At least nothing productive. What finally came out of her mouth was something stupid, something that she couldn't understand asking.

"Did she like your hair?" she questioned quietly. Her heart hammering despite the fact that she couldn't understand why it mattered to her.

He didn't respond immediately, but finally looked over at her and answered her question with one of his own. "Do you?"

Did she? What a question to ask? Did she like his haircut? She honestly had been so angry at him when he'd done it she hadn't really considered it, but she did recall one small feeling of mourning for the hair that she'd never tug through her fingers again.

"I miss it long," she admitted with a blush, not because she was embarrassed, but because she felt as though he had been truly excited about it and she'd just crushed him. So much for talking about something that wasn't tense. Finally, the books and the basket all packed up on the table called to her and she remembered the true purpose of all of this, of why they were here and what they were supposed to be doing. They weren't here to discuss each other. They had to help Gideon.

"We better go," she finally muttered. "The soup will get cold."

He nodded. Together they gathered up their things, then he opened his hand for her, and together they left the basement; hand in hand.

* * *

 **Okay, there is a lot here to unpack, but let me start by saying: this is it! This isn't one of my favorite chapters; it's my favorite in this fiction. (Which of course makes me nervous as all get out.) Yes, we turned toward positive interactions a while ago and while those fights were awesome and favorable, this chapter was always meant to be a turning point for them in a much bigger way. They're not fighting anymore, they're simply having a conversation, a good conversation where they are talking about past hurts, and better yet, moving on from them. This was a conversation they needed desperately to have for a number of reasons! The biggest is probably the Evil Queen/relationship stuff. I know that whether or not Rumple and EQ did it is a matter of debate. I thought it was kind of clear they hadn't. That they had an "if you do this then we'll do that" agreement and "this" never got done so "that" never got...done. But I know others think it's possible so, I'm sorry, I went with this version. My fiction, I made the call. Another huge thing in this chapter is that they are both sharing the truth but also believing it! Not only does Belle finally believe him about the dust, but note that as he tells her more she doesn't doubt him. When he says he didn't sleep with the Evil Queen, she believes he didn't sleep with the Evil Queen. That's a big step for her. Also, don't hate me for having Belle say she misses his hair long! That's actually something that will change by the end. The comment has a purpose, I promise!**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, Rumbellefan, and Fox24 for your reviews! Though I'm sure it's bound to cause some interesting conversations, I do hope that at its heart you'll enjoy this conversation in general and at least agree that it was sorely needed. And hey! Another fulfillment! Remember back in Chapter 30 of ML &U when I first had her discover that notebook in the basement and I said I was setting something up. A big discussion. This is it. That's called planning ahead A&E! On to the next! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	33. Slowing Down

She was confused.

She was conscious.

She was aware.

All at once she took a deep breath and stretched her body out, waking herself up from sleep slowly. For a moment all she knew was that she was comfortable, that being in the soft confines of the bed felt good and she could do it forever. She buried her head in the pillow and turned over onto her side-

Only to realize that she couldn't actually remember going to sleep.

She popped her eyes open almost immediately and glanced around her. She was home…sort of. She found herself on the second floor of the library, in her former apartment, now Rapunzel's empty apartment, laid out on the bed and hugging the pillow close to her. Sheer panic coarsed through her for a few brief seconds as she looked around wondering what was going on and how she'd ended up asleep here before she looked to her left and saw something laid out on the nightstand by her side.

It was a tray. And on it lay a bowl of soup, steam still rising from its surface, a small chunk of bread, and a single rose in a vase. The rose was all she needed to know who had put her here. But how she'd gotten here…that was a mystery.

After they'd left the house, they'd returned to the library, just as planned. They'd each taken a bowl of soup and got to work researching their various tasks. She read the books about the Black Fairy, he read books on fairy magic and black magic, hoping to find some way to wake the Blue Fairy, hoping that maybe if he could, her strength might very well weaken the sword. They worked through the night and well into the next morning. Despite his encouragements for her to come upstairs to sleep for just a few hours, but she refused. Though they'd worked through the night they'd also talked. She'd told him detail by detail about her time being pregnant, the sonogram, and the birth of their son, letting him into the moments she'd excised him from and he'd returned in kind. He told her, detail by detail, all the interactions he'd had with Gideon here so far. By the end, she almost wished he hadn't. The details he told her about his upbringing, about a boy that the Black Fairy had tortured him with, had been nearly too much to handle. Though she was tired, she was certain she'd never be able to sleep with those images in her head, knowing Gideon was out there somewhere. By the noon the next day she was reading the fairy books too, for she wasn't sure what she'd found was enough to help them with Gideon and wasn't confident that telling Rumple so soon what she'd learned was a good idea. The last thing she remembered…

She'd found something. She'd found something potentially important about the Black Fairy and had groaned at the thought of telling Rumple. Was it right? Was it wrong? She wasn't sure anymore. It all seemed to blur together. Confused, tired, and getting a small headache she'd laid her head down on the books she'd been reading…and that was all she remembered.

She must have fallen asleep. Rumple must have brought her up here. He'd set her on the bed, draped a blanket over her, and left her food for when she woke up.

Almost on cue, her stomach started to squirm and tighten before it finally let out a loud growl. She was hungry. And tired still, but a look at the clock told her now wasn't the time to go back to sleep. Judging from the time on the clock now and the last time she remembered yesterday, she had slept for about sixteen hours already. Enough was enough.

She should have gotten back to work but despite the hour she was quite tired and she quickly ambled into the bathroom, turned on the taps, and bathed in the scalding hot water instead. It worked to wake her up, or at least fool her brain that she was rested. Though it was a bit startling. If sixteen hours of sleep wasn't enough then what would be? It didn't matter. She could sleep when this was resolved. Out of the shower she took large slurps of soup to fill her belly as she fixed herself up. There were none of her own clothes in the apartment, but after wearing her own for well over forty-eight hours again she was unwilling to put them back on. Rapunzel had left some behind. Rapunzel was about her size, maybe a bit smaller around the waist but she was also taller and her style…she preferred skirts, Rapunzel's preference were ankle length dress pants or jeans. She considered the jeans for a moment, but in the end the fabric felt too stiff to be comfortable and she chose to pull on a pair of the pants. Obviously too long, but her heels were long enough that they didn't let the cuffs touch the ground. It was an odd feeling to be in pants again, and she had the feeling like she was dressed in riding clothes but she accepted the clean clothes for what they were and moved on. She put the empty bowl in the sink, washed it out, and went downstairs…only to find the library empty!

"Rumple?" she questioned out loud, looking around. But she knew this library better than anyone. There was no one here. She looked around for a few minutes, pulling on various doors to her office, the back room, even the copy room before she happened to glance across the street and see a light on in the shop. It was dreary out, overcast, and it stood out. She bundled herself up, grateful that the snowfall they'd had a couple of nights ago had melted, and walked across the street after locking the library.

The shop door opened at her touch and she looked around the empty space. "Rumple?" she questioned again.

"Back here."

She let out a sigh and felt relief spread through her body. She hadn't known just how nervous she'd been until there was no reason to be anymore.

In the back room, he sat at one of his tables, with the books that they'd had on the reading table stacked in front of him. He was paging through one at the minute and glanced up when she appeared in the door frame.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked.

She slipped her coat off and hung it on a rack close to where Mother Superiors body was still resting. After a quick look over to determine that she looked no different now than when she'd last seen her she turned back to the table.

"I don't remember going to sleep."

He smirked and reached on top of one stack of books. "You fell asleep over a copy of _Theoretical Theories of Practical Magical Practice_ ," he announced, reading the title before setting it down in front of her. "That will make even the freshest pair of eyes dozy. I moved you up to the apartment to get some rest and came here to utilize some more books." Finally, he set whatever he was reading aside and glanced back over at her. His gaze changed entirely along with his tone. From curious to annoyed in an instant and she honestly hadn't been prepared for that.

"You need to take better care of yourself," he chastised for what felt like the hundredth time that week. "I didn't find Bae by running myself ragged. I believe the phrase in this world is that it's a marathon, not a sprint."

So that's why he was annoyed. That's why he'd left her the food as well. He was once again convinced that she wasn't taking care of herself. She supposed that he was right, but every time she thought to do something like that her heart ached far more than she'd ever known it was capable of hurting. She wanted her son back now, not two hundred years from now. She couldn't imagine how he bore it all that time, especially alone! But she knew that he was not as controlled about it as he was claiming to be now. She knew there were nights he hadn't slept at all and days he'd forgotten to eat. And as for now, with Gideon…she wasn't the only one working all night.

"What about you?" she replied surprised that her voice came out far more curious than it did defensive. This seemed like exactly the thing they would have had a fighting match over last week. In fact, it had been nearly a week since they had fought over this. But she didn't want to consider that. She didn't want to think that this had been going on for a week and she still felt like they were getting nowhere, even without sleep.

"Did you sleep?" she questioned again, instead of dwelling on the misery that she was confronted with.

"I don't need it like you do," he pointed out softly. "You are mortal. I'm not. You need food and sleep. I don't."

She had no argument for that. Especially because she knew that this curse, or gift, he had enabled him to be here, researching, as she took care of herself. Or rather after he'd taken care of her.

"Thank you…for looking after me," she finally muttered shifting her feet awkwardly.

"Someone needs to," he commented glancing up at her again. But this time his gaze lingered, and she felt his eyes scan her up and down for a moment.

"Well…that's a change," he muttered motioning to her. She glanced over herself and was suddenly aware of the wardrobe change Rapunzel clothes forced her to accept.

"I went through Rapunzel's closet, at least what was left of it. Everything I own is at Flynn's or your house," she explained looking down over herself and suddenly feeling a lot more self-conscious of what she looked like before he'd mentioned something about it. "She's taller than me and a bit smaller, but it's comfortable enough. I know it's odd. I must look like-"

"You would look lovely in rags," he assured her. She wished that she had the talent of controlling her body, but when it came to him, she always had a blind spot. So no matter how much she wished that she could keep the heat from rushing into her cheeks and chest, she knew there was no sense in trying to hide it. Or the smirk that she felt cross her mouth.

"So…have we learned anything since last night?" she asked quickly, stepping up to the table and hoping that changing the subject would make some of the blushing stop. She always forgot just how charming he could be when he wanted to.

Rumple sighed and closed the book he'd been aimlessly paging through. "Very little, I'm afraid," he answered looking around their stacks. "I encountered a few leads for the Reverend Mother, one very promising one using a dragon egg but I don't know how feasible it is yet, given the rarity of such things." She nodded her head and looked around at the stack of books she'd read that he had also brought over to the pawn shop. "Did you find anything before you went to sleep?"

She swallowed hard again, wondering if now was the right time to tell him…but then realized there would never be a right time. And perhaps it was better now than later; if they could help Gideon, then it was necessary. So she reached out and found the two black books they'd taken from the crevice.

"These were helpful. Informative in some ways and others…not as much. They both read as biographies, but there is only a handful of information they agree upon, mostly information on the Dark Realm. It makes me think that perhaps the authors were escaped boys that she'd kidnapped but that's just a guess.

"They both agree that the realm that the Black Fairy dwells in was crafted by her, but not created by her! When Blue Fairy banished her there, it was formless and dark and with her magic she began to shape it into a comfortable place to live. The Black Fairy Dust that it produced was a side effect of sorts. Fairy magic produces the dust and since her magic went Dark so did the dust her magic produced. Both authors claim that it was only after she discovered it that she started mining it and then stealing children to mine it for her."

"Why children?" he asked emotionlessly as if this was any other villain they were researching.

"That's a bit complicated. Both of the authors agree that it's an accident of some kind, the texts written about her state that she was a "mother fairy" of some kind before she turned dark. They think that over the years that meant parents looking to abandon their babies could easily summon the "mother fairy" and she would take them away and watch over them. It was a while before they realized exactly what she was and that she was not a gentle mothering spirit. It probably has more to do with the Blue Fairy's interference than anything."

Rumple nodded, absorbing the information, looking uncomfortable all over again. She could see there was something on his mind and figuring out what it was turned out to be as simple as replaying what she'd said in her mind and asking herself what would upset him. She knew what it was.

"It never mentions you," she explained, trying to ease what she figured was causing the problem. "They say she's a 'mother fairy' but never figure out it's because she had a baby. Neither you nor your father are ever mentioned. If I could get my hands on the texts they mention I might be able to understand what they are talking about but…I'm assuming…that's not possible?"

He swallowed before looking back up at her. "No, it's not."

That was a shame, but she suspected she already understood the meaning behind what those texts would tell her. They probably hadn't named the Black Fairy as a "mother fairy" because of her disposition, it was probably because she had a baby. Whether or not the text's made note of that, she didn't know. And she was certain that reading them wouldn't add to the information, at least not on that front.

"Does it say how she's able to leave the realm? How any of that works?"

She nodded, happy to find something else to talk about. "The summoning of a Fairy gives her a temporary lifeline. It's no different than summoning any of the other fairies except that because they haven't been banished they have no constraints. But her summoning opens a thread just long enough for her to cross over to the realm she's been summoned to, find the child, and return to her own realm before it wears through the magic. If she doesn't get the child by the time the thread fades then she doesn't take the baby, it's as simple as that."

"Anything else?" he questioned. "Why she was banished, why she would want to come back…"

She shook her head. Each author had proposed different theories for those questions, but ultimately no reason with evidence existed that she could find. And since Mother Superior was asleep…until they figured out how to wake her, they wouldn't know.

But she did know something else. Something that made her uncomfortable, something she wasn't sure she wanted to tell him. She honestly wasn't sure what he'd do with the information, but whether or not she'd seen him use dark magic for light and considering the state of her son she wasn't entirely sure this would be Dark Magic.

"I did find one other thing," she mumbled reaching for the book that she'd fallen asleep over. "I was hoping to find something to help Mother Superior, but instead I found this…" Finding the page, she laid the book out before him and pointed out the paragraph. "It's a theory," she sighed as his eyes roamed over the words. "It's a theory that fairies can only be truly destroyed by their own wands."

"There's some truth to that," he muttered under his breath. His tone was so confident that it made her skin crawl. He glanced up at her and immediately ducked back down into the book. "Don't ask," he ordered. "Knowing won't help things."

She swallowed hard again and took a deep breath. She could remember the wand that sat in his castle long ago, but she'd never thought to question how he'd gotten it until now. But it was as he'd said, asking about it wouldn't help them, and it wouldn't undo what was done.

"You have the Black Fairy's wand," she reminded him. "You used it when we tried to find Gideon. I never saw you give it back."

Rumple went still for a moment, then after a few deep breaths walked over to a cabinet and pulled from it…the Black Fairy's wand.

Of course, he wouldn't have given it up. He lay it there on the table between the two of them and stared at it.

"But I have my doubts that it could destroy her."

"Why?" she questioned.

"Well, the Blue Fairy certainly isn't a fan of her, and this wand has been in her custody for years. If she truly wanted to save the little children, she could have done it with a wave of this wand, but she didn't. Why not unless it doesn't work?"

She sighed again, realizing that he must not have read far enough down. "Because she couldn't," she explained coming around the table to stand at his side and point at the paragraph. _"A Fairy, being made of the most powerful light magic in the world cannot be destroyed unless by a great act of Evil."_

"Light magic…even if the Blue Fairy wanted to she's not capable of 'great acts of Evil' at least not the kind required for this. Getting herself to the point where she could commit those acts would mean she wasn't a Fairy anymore, not the kind we know. She'd be twisted and warped…like your mother. It would be trading one beast for another."

Rumple read the paragraph quickly, his eyes skimming over the words again and again.

"Killing the black Fairy would not be an act of Great Evil," he finally muttered. The words were spoken so low she wasn't sure if he meant for her to hear it or not. But she had heard.

And she couldn't say she disagreed with him.

* * *

 **Kind of a filler chapter, but filler chapter with purpose. This chapter is meant to be a breath of fresh air. During moments in this fiction, I wanted to give them opportunities for a "redo". I purposefully built situations that were similar to others in their past where they had "failed" in their relationship into this fiction so they had the opportunity to "fix it". This chapter is meant to harken back to only a few short chapters ago, when she broke her leg because she was exhausted, so Rumple put her to sleep, and she got angry. Here we have a successful redo of that moment. Belle is obviously exhausted, she's been up another night and Rumple knows it. But he doesn't trick her into going to sleep. She said she didn't want to sleep and he didn't force it on her. He waited until she fell asleep and then made her more comfortable. And when Belle woke up she didn't yell, she didn't chastise him for not waking her up. Instead, she thanks him for taking care of her and they have a conversation about how she has to take better care of herself. Doesn't the air just feel so much lighter than it did last time they did this? Haven't they come so far considering where they were only a few days ago? And hey, look at that, they even discovered a way to potentially destroy the Black Fairy and agreed on it. Pretty remarkable, right?**

 **Thank you, thank you, thank you Grace5231973, Fox24, Paintbrush123, Judy Mulder, Rumbellefan, and Adaasgard for your reviews! Oh I'm so happy that you enjoyed the last chapter and consider it one of your favorites too! This chapter is certainly among those favorites for me but it is also significant because it marks something a little different. When I wrote this fiction I felt as though it had three parts. The first part was the pair of them agreeing to work together, the second was the pair of them working on each other as they worked together, and the third part was simply "Rumbelle works together". Finally! This marks the end of section two. Oh don't worry, there will still be good conversations like we've had in section two scattered throughout section three, but this is the point where we see the other characters start to come back into the story and instead of breaking up and going their separate ways they continue to work together through it all. I hope you've enjoyed section two. And so, we're on to section three and into 6x16! Here we go! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	34. Twisted Turns

Another day. Another pair of her best friend's pants. Another theory. They spent all of yesterday researching until she felt her eyes would bleed, but it wasn't for nothing! She felt like it was for something, like she was getting somewhere! But Rumple insisted that night that she go to sleep and kept the books with him in the shop as he sent her over to the apartment to take up residence once more on Rapunzel's bed. She hadn't wanted to, but it had ultimately been the best thing for it was as she lay in the dark, away from books and pre-printed words that her mind had begun to work it out.

Information was always key, but it wasn't everything. She'd been working her brain so hard, forcing it to absorb the information that she truly hadn't processed what she took in until her mind had those hours to quiet. What she came up with in the darkness wasn't a good thing, not to her, but at least it was something. She'd thought back to the event that Rumple had described to her, the memory from Gideon's childhood with the boy...it was the answer. There was another realm in need of a Savior. That was reason Gideon gave for why he was here. And now she was beginning to understand it as she hadn't when she'd first been told the tale.

And so this morning when she'd gotten up, and found a bowl of hot oatmeal by her bedside, after she'd showered, put on more of Rapunzel's abandoned clothes and gone over to the shop, she felt a growing sense of confidence.

"Anything?" she asked Rumple as she set aside her jacket and found him hunched over books in the back, almost exactly as she'd left him. He was changing suits day to day, and his hair was damp. It was a good thought to know he was stopping at least to take care of what needs did have, even if they were not the same as her own.

"Nothing," he growled with frustration, reaching that point she so often did in her research where she'd looked up everything that could be looked up! But in her experience, it was always after hitting that place that something new and vital revealed itself. In this case, that was her job.

"I may have something," she muttered going back to the two books on his mother. He was staring at her, eyes wide and questioning, giving her his undivided attention. "Gideon's plan…I think it's good! Not the bit about killing Emma, obviously, but…he said he was here because there was another realm in need of a Savior and that if he killed Emma with Hrunting he would gain her powers and free that realm. What realm would be more in need of a Savior than a realm filled with innocent children who were in danger from a great evil?"

"My mother. You think he's doing this to kill my mother."

She shook her head. It was a complicated question, one that was both yes and no. He was trying to kill the Black Fairy, but that wasn't his ultimate goal or her reason for doing it.

"I think he's trying to free the children who live in that realm from her abuse."

He stared at her with his mouth open, looking at her as though he didn't know what to say in the wake of her theory. But she could clearly see that he thought she was-

She jumped when she heard the bell outside in the shop ring violently. "Gold! Get out here, now! I've got questions and you better have answers!"

It was Emma. Her voice, angry and strong, along with her footsteps were easily recognizable. They exchanged quick glances before Rumple stood up with a heavy sigh and walked around her, squeezing her shoulder on the way out to the main room.

"If you want answers, I suggest you start by asking nicely," he snarled just over the threshold. Curious, she found a marker and held her place in the book she was reading before following him out and finding not just Emma but Snow White too. She wasn't sure if she'd ever seen Snow with that look of anger on her face before.

"I'm done with nice. Your son has a death wish, which, if he messes with me one more time, I'm happy to fulfill it," Emma stated.

"And I'm happy to help, we've been looking for some mother-daughter bonding," Snow added.

Her stomach gave such a violent twist that for a moment she thought she was going to be sick. Sicker than her morning sickness ever had made her. Those words, from the mouth of Snow White…how could she say such awful words?! She had stood by her through how many villains as they tried, all of them, to save them in ways that didn't include death. And now Snow White, one of the most even-tempered people she'd ever met, was saying words like that?! Threatening to kill her son right in front of her, so easily? As if it were a joke. She'd never been a violent person, but suddenly she felt anger wrap around her heart that urged her to reach across the table and slap the woman before her, just to see if she couldn't bring sense into her. What on earth could her son have done to make words like that acceptable to the great Snow White?

"What did he do now?" she questioned.

"He banished Hook to another realm," Emma explained.

She felt her eyes widen. She wasn't sure if it was in shock or in horror. That was awful. Truly it was. It showed a great affinity for magic that very few in this town showed, not even Rumple! But the Evil Queen had banished everyone in their world the entire realm and she didn't seen Snow White joking about bonding with Emma as they murdered Regina! She'd never known them to be so insensitive.

"He's using it as a bargaining chip to force me to help him to kill the Black Fairy."

"He did?"

"Yes, he did!" Emma snapped at Rumple. Her mind was reeling as she thought back to what she'd put together in the other room. She was beginning to feel like she was right. If he killed the Black Fairy then he'd rescue the children. Goodness from evil, evil to make goodness…shades of gray.

"Now, I know nothing about this fairy, but I'm guessing you do?" Emma questioned glancing at him, completely ignoring her presence behind the table with him. She felt her mouth go dry as she looked up at Rumple, questioning whether or not they wanted to tell Emma about the Black Fairy and his relation to him. She was certain that not long ago she would have demanded he tell them, but now, with everything going on and the threat that Snow White had just made against her son…she couldn't be sure it was the right call. Only he could decide. Only he would decide. And for that minute alone she knew, without a doubt, that whatever his choice was now, she'd go along with it. It was his choice.

"Yeah, she's my mother," Rumple admitted without a moment of hesitation. She felt like crying at his words. But whether it was because she was proud he'd admitted a secret he'd tried to keep hidden for centuries, going so far as to destroy written history of her, or because of the stress she felt coursing through her body she couldn't be sure.

Emma and Snow White exchanged their looks of anger for shock, and both had to take small steps back at the pronouncement.

"She stole Gideon away from the Blue Fairy, took him away to another world where time moves differently...tortured him for twenty-eight years."

Across the counter, Snow White crossed her arms stubbornly over her chest and closed her eyes as if she didn't want to hear that news, as if she might feel sympathy if she knew the entire story.

"Why would she do that?" she finally asked in a demanding tone.

"To hurt me," Rumple answered, looking away from them.

"Her own son?!" Snow scoffed.

"That tells you all you need to know about her," he replied. That wasn't quite true, but since she couldn't prove any of what she was thinking just yet she was perfectly happy to leave the topic of the Black Fairy and how much they got to understand about it up to Rumple. Her concern wasn't the Black Fairy, it was Gideon and making sure they understood that he was her son. No matter how lost and confused he was they loved him and she wasn't about to let them kill him over his confusion, over the mistakes that she and Rumple had made in their relationship that enabled the Black Fairy to create this monstrosity. She wouldn't allow them to take her boy. And she wouldn't allow the Black Fairy to win like this.

"Emma, please don't hurt Gideon," she begged leaning over the counter. She'd heard what Emma said when she first came in here about him taking Killian away but she'd also heard why. He was asking Emma for help! He wanted to kill the Black Fairy, he was lost and confused and he was asking for help from the Savior! "He was not born evil, she made him this way! If you help him though, he will be on the side of good, okay, I'm certain!"

"Belle, I can only go with what I see and what I know."

"Then know this," Rumple interrupted before she could snap that she was seeing Gideon this way. He'd asked for help! "Belief in good and hope isn't the only reason to spare my son and help destroy the Black Fairy. Right now, we have an opportunity to not only destroy her and save him, but to save all of us." And the children…if her theory was right.

"She hasn't threatened anyone else," Emma argued, dismissing his accusations easily. Too easily. She'd always had the utmost respect for Emma, even though she didn't know her well. But she'd never known her to be so love sick and selfish as she was in this moment. Since when did she want to kill before help? Since when did she want to sit back and potentially expose the world to more evil? This girl before her was nothing like the fierce woman she'd known since she first arrived in Storybrooke. And neither was Snow White. She was so disappointed it hurt.

"That's because she's in another realm," Rumple corrected. "Only able to break free long enough to steal other children before it pulls her back in, but, if she should break free for good-"

"I think I can handle it," Emma interrupted. "I handled you. I broke your curse, the one you gave to Regina that started this whole mess!"

"That's just the thing Miss Swan…the curse, that dark Dark Curse…it and all of the Darkness you've ever faced was born out of one twisted soul…the Black Fairy," he informed them. "And unless we try and stop her, she is gonna bring far worse."

Finally, the words seemed to be sinking in. Emma and Snow White exchanged a glance, and she noticed Emma bounce up and down on her toes almost nervously at what he'd just said.

"Alright, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to help Gideon with the Black Fairy like he's asked, but I'm not doing this for free. If he wants my help, he can have it like everyone else, but first, he has to bring Killian back. That is my requirement. I need to meet him soon anyway."

"Emma, alone?!" Snow chastised.

"I'll be fine, but in the meantime, I need the three of you to go up to the convent, speak with Mother Superior. If this woman is a Fairy or was a Fairy, I don't care, but she'll have the information that we need. Talk to her see what you can figure out."

"That's not necessary." The words flew out of her mouth before Emma could take a step away from them. Her heart was racing almost as fast as her mind was flying through her options and considering what she didn't think she'd have to so soon. Mother Superior couldn't give them answers. She was in the back all but dead. All it would take would be to take Emma and Snow there, to be honest with them, show them what Rumple had done…

But if they already hated their son this much she hated to think what would be done to Rumple if they found out about Mother Superior. She needed Rumple right now, and all his resources to help their son, the last thing she needed was him on the run from Emma, or both of them without their obvious resources…she had to protect both her men.

"We were just about to go to the library to do some research on our own. The Black Fairy is infamous, and I've read about her before in other books. We don't think we have to bother the fairies."

"They wouldn't be much help," Rumple continued, never missing a beat. She could feel his eyes wash over her for a moment before turning back to the women across the glass case. "As far as they are concerned my mother is safely locked away in a realm of her own. And I think you'll find them very unwilling to discuss such unpleasantness as my mother. No one likes their dirty laundry aired for all the world to see. Wouldn't you agree Ms. Swan?"

Emma stared at him with dark eyes for reasons she couldn't begin to fathom. Clearly, he'd made a reference to something she didn't understand.

"Just find me something I can use," she finally muttered before turning to her mother. "Give me a few moments alone in the tower with Gideon, then go to the library with them. Keep an eye on them and let me know if anything happens."

She felt her jaw drop at what Emma demanded of her mother, but it was Rumple who spoke first.

"So we're to be prisoners, are we?"

"No, if I wanted to keep you prisoner you would know it," Emma scoffed. "But I'm not about to let either of you out of my sight either. Forgive me if I'm finding it a bit hard to trust the Gold Family at the moment. Until I can sort this out and get Killian back, I'm going to do what I have to do. I'm the Savior. I'm only doing what I think is necessary to protect everyone from your family."

"You mean your family," Rumple corrected. "Gideon's threatened no one else in this town; he poses no danger to them, it's you he's made it obvious he's after."

"No, but you said yourself the Black Fairy does. Either she's a threat, or she's not Gold, you can't have it both ways!" she argued. Emma glanced at her Mother. "Order Granny's for lunch and wait for my call. I'll check in."

And then she was gone.

* * *

 **Oh, where do I even begin with this scene? I'm not going to lie, I've always been a Rumbelle fan but even then I always kind of liked Emma, Snow, and David. I mean...it's been kind of hard to dislike them entirely. But this scene made me downright hate Emma and Snow altogether. It just seemed so out of character for both of them, and their comments...wow! Talk about inappropriate! To me it was just a super unnecessary 0 to 60 response. They've faced danger before, let's face it! Emma's had people try to kill her before as well as the entire town and none of that ever elicited a response of "I'm going to bond with my daughter over killing your son" from Snow White. And Emma...I just don't know what happened in this episode. She was always touted as the character who could have a man but didn't need a man and so to see her say "Gideon sent Killian away and now I'm going to kill him" and then spend the entire freaking episode pinning was just...so un-Emma to me. I've never been as disappointed with the Charming Family as I was in this episode and those actions are going to reverberate well into the next fiction, trust me.**

 **Thank you Grace5231973, Fox24, Paintbrush123, and Rumbellefan for your reviews on the last few chapters! Now, aside from the problems mentioned above with this episode, there were some other problems with movement of the characters and who went where, when, and why. It's kind of stuff that we've done before, but on a much grander scale and I promise we will get into it a little more in the next chapter. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	35. A Sacrifice of Freedom

It took her a moment after Emma left to interpret everything that had happened and all that had been said. She wasn't used to being treated harshly by Emma Swan and especially Snow White. But after Emma left and her mother remained, she realized that Rumple's comment about being held prisoner wasn't far off. Snow was their guard. And she might not have been that imposing but Emma with all her magic could be. They could leave, but she was certain that the moment they did Snow would call Emma who was with Gideon and finding out his mother was on the lose and potentially coming to find him would hardly help matters.

It was not a pleasant afternoon. After Snow ordered food from Granny's insisting it be delivered to the library the three of them went there. Despite the fact that the books she needed were in the back room of the pawn shop, she didn't take them. It was important she not risk Snow finding out about Mother Superior and she knew how Rumple felt about the possibility of those books being read by others. She'd crafted a lie and now they had to follow through with it. It was the safest thing they could do, if not the smartest.

"Where's Rapunzel?" Snow inquired when they arrived at the empty library.

She looked around as she headed for the back room with her keys ready. "Not here," she snapped, wishing so desperately that she was because she was certain even Rumple would agree they could use a little help at this point. But instead of missing her or elaborating she let Rumple and Snow into her precious back room of magic.

"I don't think we need much from here, probably the history books will be more helpful, but I think these might have something…you can get started on these while we go collect the others!" she snapped. For some reason, she just couldn't bring herself even to try and be friendly to the woman who she had once shared cherished secrets. Snow didn't seem concerned with her attitude but instead took the books back to a table to begin. That would keep her busy for a while. She very purposefully gave Snow a few of the books she knew would mention the Black Fairy sporadically, to help her think she was doing something helpful before she and Rumple went to the history section. They exchanged glances as she began pulling books off the shelf and adding them to the cart.

"I'm sorry I lied," she finally managed to whisper. "I just figured that with the Blue Fairy-"

"It was necessary," he sighed. "It won't mean much coming from me, but it was the right thing to do."

"It feels wrong."

He took the books from her arms. "Perhaps we'll leave the falsehoods to me from now on, then."

The three of them sat at one of the reading tables. They ate lunch. They read. But what they discovered was not really anything worth noting. Her plan had worked, Snow, who had never worked with her much on research was finding enough mentions of the Black Fairy in her books that she believed they were making progress, but she and Rumple knew otherwise. Other than a rouse to keep her out of the back room of the shop, this was going nowhere.

And the watching. Snow was aware of everything they were doing. When she got up to use the bathroom, when she went for books, when Rumple cleared his throat, even when she'd gone upstairs to put a kettle on for tea. She was in a foul mood, and completely serious about the task Emma had set before her. It made her feel as though someone was hanging on her back, looking over her shoulder, watching her every move. As each hour passed it became less and less tolerable.

Rumple wanted to talk to her. She could see that he did, but he didn't dare with Snow in the room. The more he glanced at her the more she wondered why he simply didn't freeze her, even for a few seconds, just so they could have a break. That was why when the wound of ringing filled the air she glanced not at Snow White but Rumple, wondering if he saw the potential that she did. He watched as Snow White took the phone from her bag.

"It's Emma," she breathed, turning around and going into the depths of the library to speak with her. As soon as she was out of eyeshot, Rumple rose. She didn't fight him when he grabbed her jacket and hauled her up and away from the table.

"We may only have a few moments before she comes back," he whispered checking over his shoulder as though their time might have already been up. Her eyes automatically scanned the floor to be sure their conversation was still private. Sure enough, she could still hear the mutterings of Snow White on the phone, somewhere in the distance.

"Rumple, what is it?" she hissed.

"I can't sit here pretending to do research while our son is out there alone with Emma. There's no telling what he might do if we're not there to keep him in check."

"Well…if what Emma said is true he went to her for help."

"And how many times have I done the same thing? Gone to someone else on false terms to get what I want?"

She swallowed as she began to shrink from him. It was one thing to hear this coming from Emma and Snow; it was another thing entirely to hear it coming from Rumple.

"You think he's lying to Emma?"

"I don't know, Belle," he admitted sadly. "But I know that I don't like being trapped here not knowing. I need to go after them."

"Rumple…even if you could get out of here without Snow noticing how would you find Gideon. He's using his magic to hide from us, and now that you've given him Hrunting there's nothing to set a trap with."

"I don't need to find him, or his magic," Rumple corrected. "He can hide from us all he wants, but we know who he is with. All I need to do is track Miss Swan, find Emma through her magic. She's not hiding from us it should be simple. I can find him, Belle, I promise you I can."

Her breath caught as she realized that he was right. All this time they'd been hoping to find Gideon and wishing that he had something on him, clothes or an object that would make him easier for them to find, an exception to his magic. Here it was! One week later their wish had finally come true…but it wasn't enough.

"And what will you do when you find him?" she hissed. "What then?"

"Watch him, ensure he makes the right choices."

"Talk to him again."

"Only this time it'll be different," he insisted. "We know far more about what he's experienced and what he's planning now than we did then. Talking might just work this time around. Seeing you might help too, after I find him of course."

Seeing her son. He wanted to bring the two of them together! Seeing Gideon would help, she could finally do something good! She was more than ready, she'd been ready the moment he stepped in that door. Now the only question was how to get out that door.

"How do we do that from here?"

From within the depths of his jacket he pulled free the dagger. It had been a long while since she'd seen that dagger up close, probably the last time was when they were in the Underworld together and he'd practically put it up on a pedestal. She felt the familiar sensation of jealousy swim through her as she looked it over. No, she probably shouldn't have been surprised that he'd had it one him, but until this moment she'd all but forgotten about their problems surrounding that dagger. He placed it on the table before both of them.

"I can go, quietly, she'll never hear the door open or close because it won't. But I'll need some help, a distraction, something to keep our babysitter from calling her daughter to tell her I'm gone. Otherwise, Emma might back out of whatever deal she's made with Gideon and if he's being truthful, I don't want to stop him."

She closed her eyes and sighed at his plan.

"And you want me to stay behind and be that distraction…" she breathed. In other words, he wanted her to stay prisoner while he went out once more to find their child! She had no problem with the second part of that; it was the first part that bothered her.

"It could be dangerous, Belle."

"Anything is dangerous in this town, Rumple," she hissed back under her breath. She was so tired of being told she couldn't do something because it was dangerous! "Driving down the streets are dangerous if the wrong people are behind the wheel, but Rumple…I understand. I know you want to keep me safe, so did my father, and my mother, and nearly every other person I've ever known, but you can't swaddle me forever. Eventually you are going to have to let me help you!"

"I agree, and I'm not about to argue against it. There is a middle ground, a medium between what is too dangerous and dangerous enough, but today isn't the day to discover that medium," he whispered looking back over his shoulder. Snow was still on the phone, but it had already been minutes and the other time Emma had called that wasn't more than a few seconds. They were running out of time.

Before her the dagger gleamed on the table and she couldn't deny that she was tempted. It would be so easy. Grab the dagger, demand he take her with him or just send her to where Emma was…but there were so many problems with her plan, problems that he had already sorted out in his own such as how they would keep their escape from Emma and Snow and what would happen if the women discovered they were gone. Snow was already primed to walk into the forest and kill Gideon if she saw him she did not need to give her another excuse to do that or to distrust them. She knew what this would look like if it wasn't handled delicately and when it came to Rumple distracting Snow White…the idea was laughable. She'd see right through him.

And as far as her using the dagger again, it left a sour taste in her mouth. She'd used that thing twice in her memory and neither time had it ended with her being proud of herself of happy about what she'd done. Besides, with no magic of her own, what was she to do out there without him. His plan might not have been flawless in her mind, but it was the best they had.

"Fine, go. Be as quiet. I'll keep Snow distracted for as long as I can."

"Take this," he muttered reaching over the table and grabbing a book he'd been reading.

"What's this?"

"We both know searching for information on the Black Fairy in these books is futile so I've spent my time doing something slightly more productive. It's the information on the Dragon Egg. See what you can learn, use it to find a way to wake the Blue Fairy if you can. I'm going to find him, Belle, I promise. I'll contact you when I do."

She nodded, hoping that she wasn't giving him another perfect opportunity to trick her, then took the dagger and sat back down as he vanished in a puff of smoke.

* * *

 **This was one of those chapters where the most challenging aspect was movement. People move around and show up at times that don't make sense and it really is responsible for a lot of the way this episode translated in the writing. Think about it for a moment. It's, at best, afternoon when Emma and Snow walk into that shop to confront Rumple and Belle. Then, because of how long they are there and when Rumple arrives at the mansion, we know he was not "right on their tail". There was a delay. Almost like the issue between 6x11 and 6x13 except instead of watching an entire season of Westworld, they decided to try a couple of episodes before Belle decided it was too much and Rumple thought to go look for Emma and Gideon. And then there is Belle. Why wasn't she with Rumple? Did she need some time to figure out the timeline in Westworld before she was fit to go after them? And when she finally shows up at the Mansion, Snow is there with her as if they decided to drive together. It was just...a lot of motion. I tried hard to make it so that all that motion in these chapters makes sense.**

 **Big thank yous to Grace5231973, Fox24, Paintbrush123, and Rumbellefan for your reviews. Lots of interesting thoughts and emotions surrounding this episode, the Charmings, and Gideon. I'm interested to see what you'll think of these next few chapters in Belle's head. Oh, and for anyone thinking I created a problem with Gideon in the library tower while the girls are there...just wait, friends! If I've proved anything over the last five years, it should be that I'm pretty detail oriented. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	36. Cat Fight

Snow White was just finishing on the phone when she began scrawling out titles and authors onto a spare piece of paper so that when the woman appeared around the corner again she wasn't in the least surprised or startled. She had everything under control.

"Where is Rumpelstiltskin?"

"I sent him into the stacks to fetch some books. I'm going to send you into the back room if you don't mind. I just found something and I need some more books to decide if it's something or nothing. I happen to know of a few off the top of my head that will tell me if it has validity or not." She continued to scribble the names and authors on the piece of paper and handed it to her when she finished. "Rumple is getting the books in the stacks but the back room is where you'll find these. This key will unlock the back room." She wasn't good at lying and even she could see the hole in her request. Wasn't it simpler for her to go and get the books? Yes. But she needed to give Rumple as much time as possible out there and she knew that keeping Snow on her feet would make for a much better excuses that keeping her stationary. With any luck, she could keep her thinking that the pair just kept missing each other. But only if she could convince her she needed her on her feet.

"I can trust you in a room full of magical books, can't I?" she questioned at Snow's skeptical look. It wasn't an explanation, but it seemed a better idea, and she was pleased to see the Princess squint her eyes in irritation at her comment. Yes, she knew the comment was a low blow, but it was hard to feel like it was truly low when she couldn't even leave this library without being reported on. The moment she was out of her sight again she collapsed into the chair she'd been using and gently massaged her hand to get rid of the cramp she had from writing so fast. She sighed with relief that she seemed to have, at least temporarily, convinced Snow that Rumple was still in the building. Sending her into the back room bought her some time, but there weren't a lot of books on that list, it shouldn't take her too long to find even with a couple of the names purposefully misspelled.

She had no idea what Gideon was using Emma to do, but she hoped that Rumple found them quickly and they acted even quicker because otherwise this wasn't going to work for long.

She made herself busy while Snow was gone, working on the next part of her distraction meant she had to rearrange things as though he was here. She retrieved various books from the shelves, opened them around her, returned old ones, and finally stole away all their coffee mugs and put them in the sink. It did take a lot longer for Snow to return than she had hoped, but she was pleased to see that it was dusk. It made her feel as though it had been longer than it actually was. She felt guilty for a moment when she saw that the stack of books she carried was nearly the size of her torso, but then didn't make a move to help her. Not after what she'd said about Gideon.

"Rumple went to fetch us some fresh tea, should I tell him to make you a cup?" she questioned, already knowing the answer. She felt a small wrench in her heart for the friendship that she'd felt for this woman until today, the same friendship that enabled her to know that this next face in excusing the Dark One would work. But this was what had to be done, especially if she wanted to place herself against them. She'd never been more disappointed with anyone in her life.

"I prefer coffee these days."

"I'll tell him to put a pot on," she countered perfectly, picking up her cell phone to send him a fake text message. That should buy them some more time. What she would do when he didn't arrive with the coffee and tea...she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

"So…these will help you with the Black Fairy?" she questioned as she began to restack and check to make sure all of them were there.

"I don't know yet, that's why I need to read them, to figure out if what Rumple found has any validity."

"I thought you said you found it?" Snow asked.

She felt her stomach twist. How did he always plan his lies so perfectly. "It's difficult to remember who found what when we work together. Did you lock the door when you were done?" she questioned, purposefully changing the subject as she looked through the books. She didn't bother to look up from her books, she was doing her best to maintain a presence of cool irritation despite the fact that her heart was hammering away in her chest. She wanted to maintain control over as much of the situation as possible. "There are a lot of valuable books back there, I wouldn't want them to go missing."

Again Snow crossed her arms over her chest and gave a shift nod. "I left it the way I found it," she commented as if she'd been insulted. She honestly couldn't begin to describe the anger boiling in her chest at such a thought. "So where is Rapunzel if she's not here anymore. Did you have a fight?"

She glanced up at Snow from under her eyelashes, sensing the comment for what it was. Actually, it was her mother that told her what kind of fight this was, and Lacey that told her what it was called. Long ago, after a tournament she'd walked beside her mother as she and another lady of court that she knew her mother didn't care for exchanged comments. The comments were not exactly inappropriate or mean, but the tone suggested otherwise. They were delivered with cold sweetness and the occasional false laugh. When the woman left she had asked her mother about it.

"Men and women express anger in very different ways my darling. When men fight each other they express it in rage, red hot anger that erupts like a volcano. When women fight each other they express it with their words, colder and far more harsh than any blizzard the north has ever seen."

She'd only shaken her head utterly confused. "But I've heard you and father fight before, it's never like either of those things."

"Ah, well that is the best part my dear," she smirked. "For when it comes to love men take a bit from us and we a bit from them. We calm their anger and they give us a certain…fire."

She hadn't understood it at the time, but of course looking back at all the times she'd fought with Rumpelstiltskin it made sense. But she honestly couldn't say that she'd ever experienced a fight with another woman like this before, she couldn't say that she'd really ever had a fight with a friend before like this. In her head, Lacey called it a "cat fight". Snow's comment wasn't as common as it seemed. She'd subtly insulted her ability to lock the library and she'd returned the favor by touching on what she suspected might have been a sore spot with Rapunzel. Fortunately, it wasn't as she assumed.

"No," she responded. "She's in hiding, along with Flynn and his sister."

"Hiding?" Snow blanched. "That sounds serious."

"It's just a precaution. Rumple thought it was for the best after Gideon broke the clocktower. He wanted them to be kept safe."

"Gideon broke the clocktower?!" Snow gasped with her eyes wide. For a moment she was tempted to judge her ignorance, but when she considered that Rapunzel had been there and called them immediately, and how quickly Rumple had left the room to go fix it, she knew it probably hadn't been broken for more than thirty minutes, if that. As much as she wanted to judge, she was simply forced to nod. Snow didn't exactly seem happy that something like that had happened right under her nose without her knowledge. She shook her head and grimaced at the event as if trying to dismiss it and she couldn't help but think that if David and Killian hadn't tried to murder her son that morning then she and Rumple might have called them for help. But that one act had been a declaration of war Emma had been oblivious to when she promised them no one would be hurt that night. It seemed that promise extended no further than that.

"Are you sure they're safe?" Snow finally whispered, glancing at the curtain where she thought Rumple was still hiding. "You're sure he took them somewhere safe and didn't…I don't know…"

"Kill them?" she assumed. "Trap them? Imprison them?"

Snow shrugged. That was exactly what she thought had happened.

"They're in the cabins in the woods," she declared. No, she hadn't seen them there herself but she felt confident than they were, that when he'd made the arrangements he hadn't been tricking any one, least of all her. He had no reason to, they were looking for their son. "I can give you addresses if you want to check whether or not I'm being truthful. Or better yet, I can give you Rapunzel's cell phone number. Or Flynn's, or Rumple can…"

"Okay, okay, that's enough, I'm sorry it's just…when it comes to Rumpelstiltskin-"

"I know," she interrupted. "Trust me I know. But they are safe. Rumple is making every effort to help Gideon get back to the Light and that includes hiding our friends to make sure no one is hurt."

Snow looked her over with skeptical eyes for a moment, as if she couldn't quite believe what she was saying.

"Strange thing for a Dark One to do don't you think," she finally accused.

"But not for a father," she replied. "He doesn't want that life for his son. I'm sure there are mistakes in your past that you hope Neal doesn't make. Rumple is no different. We got him into this mess and now we are just trying as hard as we can to get him out of it, to help him be free of what that woman did to him."

Snow only shook her head. "Look, I don't want to be enemies with you."

"Then don't be!" she hissed back at her. Her temper was rising and suddenly she didn't much feel like there was a difference between the anger of men and the anger of women. "Help us!"

"Helping you means helping Gideon and helping Gideon means helping my daughter along to her death."

"It doesn't have to be that way! Gideon doesn't want to kill Emma he just thinks that he has to. If we work together maybe we can help him get what he wants without either of our children dying."

"They're working together now!"

Were they? Yes, Gideon was with Emma right now, and she hoped that Rumple was somewhere in the shadows helping but she had a feeling this wasn't exactly what Snow thought it was. Gideon had gone to Emma for help, but instead of helping him she was asking him to retrieve Killian. And yes, she knew her son shouldn't have done that but he didn't know any other way to get her to listen and it was obvious why. Everyone had let him down. David, Killian, Emma had done it the moment she made the deal to help after Killian was retrieved. She had let him down too.

"I was willing to cut my son from his destiny in order to ensure that everyone lives, but David and Killian had clearly already decreed him villainous enough to not even give him a chance," she pointed out.

"David was protecting Emma."

"So was I!" she half screamed, feeling so frustrated her hands were balled into fists. This entire conversation was beginning to feel pointless. "Emma was an entire realm away and I was thinking just as much of protecting Emma as I was protecting Gideon. I was looking for a way to save both our children. And David and Hook just decided he was beyond help. Zelena and Regina can be forgiven but my son can't?"

"Zelena didn't directly threaten my daughter."

"No," she corrected quickly, because that was the stupidest argument she'd ever heard. "Zelena threatened all of us. Everything we know and everyone we love including Neal. She took him from you the moment he was born and yet she is walking around town with Robin's baby on her hip."

"And if it were up to me she'd be in jail for that, but your husband let her out. Zelena is Regina's problem now and if she feels this is right I'm not going to fight her on it," she insisted stubbornly. "And Regina isn't like the others, she's changed!"

"And David wouldn't have even given my son the opportunity to change," she spat back. "I don't want Emma dead. And Rumple doesn't either. Neither of us want Gideon to accomplish what he claims he's here to do, but I don't understand why can't it be like all the others? Gideon is under the thumb of the Black Fairy, why can't all of us search for a way to free him so that Emma isn't in danger and we can turn our attention toward the real evil here, the Black Fairy."

"You said yourself she's in another realm, she's not the threat."

"Yes, she's in another realm…for now. But Rumple is convinced that Gideon wouldn't be here unless she wanted him to be. Gideon already told us he's here to help end the suffering in another realm. Where else but his own? And why would the Black Fairy want him here if she knew he was going to try to destroy her? There is something more going on here, Snow! And we have to stop it before it starts. Please…there are children involved."

She hadn't wanted to share that little piece of information until she was sure now was the right time, but if anything was going to wake Snow up from this stubborn you versus us attitude then it would be innocent children. And sure enough, the minute she said it, she watched her face melt into one of confusion and seriousness.

"What-"

But before she could ask her question they were both startled by something happening outside. It was an odd flash of bright light.

* * *

 **This chapter is pretty straightforward. If I was going to put Belle and Snow in a room together I wanted to give them an opportunity to lay it all out on the table and at least try to reconcile just because I think that's in character. Belle is almost eternally the mediator of the main cast. If there is a problem, chances are she's probably trying to fix the problem so everyone is on the same page again. If I had to pick a second mediator it would be Snow. She fixes things for everyone. Regina, Zelena, David, Emma, Killian, you name the conflict, she's probably somewhere in there trying to figure things out. I tried to make it so that we could see just how easily they probably could have joined forces if only people had talked with one another. But they don't and I think that leads a lot to the next chapter.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973, Fox24, and Paintbrush123 for the reviews of the last chapter. I'm glad you liked the explanation of why everyone is where they are and doing what they are doing. Not to mention, commentary as the OUAT characters watch Westworld is something I never knew I needed in my life until now! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	37. A Deep Betrayal

She saw it first but only because Snow's back was to the windows when it first appeared. The moment she started staring Snow turned around and also looked dumbfounded at what she was seeing. A light, white and hot on the street before them. It was like lightning, only white and far more prolonged than a mere flash. She moved around the table, drawn like a moth to the flame by what she saw. When she finally got to the window her jaw dropped in horror and confusion. She'd desperately wanted to know what was going on outside but much to her surprise it didn't seem to be going on "outside". The light was blinding, and she couldn't find a source other than a general direction. Up. It was coming from the clocktower!

"What is that?" Snow asked softly behind her. She honestly didn't have a response. What were the chances that Gideon and Emma and Rumple were up in that clocktower? This couldn't be something else coming to Storybrooke; they had their hands full with Gideon! Another attack at a time like this would be devastating.

"Rumpelstiltskin?! Rumpelstiltskin, get over here and tell me what this is?" Snow shouted in her silence.

The name broke her stare only for a second, only long enough for her to realize that they would be caught the moment Rumple didn't appear.

But then it stopped. The light it was gone. The street was quiet and dark, lit now only by the streetlights that had been dwarfed only a second ago. What had they just witnessed? She wasn't sure, but she knew that whether or not Snow found out she had to tell Rumple, she had to tell him now.

"Where are you going? What are you doing? What-"

"I'm calling Rumple," she explained quietly, not wanting to disturb anyone who might be upstairs.

Snow followed her back into the back room to grab her bag and cell phone but now she looked wildly around. "Calling him? What's going on here? Where is Rumpelstiltskin?" she demanded looking around.

"I'm calling him now; he needs to know-"

"Where is he now?!" she interrupted.

She didn't even think as she took a breath and dialed the phone. "He's tracking Gideon through Emma."

Snow's eyes widened as her hand dove predictably into her pocket to retrieve her own phone, no doubt to call Emma. Frankly, she didn't care if she did right now. At least she'd get his attention! She was already busy dialing again since he hadn't picked up the first call. That was suspicious.

"Anything?" she asked Snow going back into the main room.

"No," she snapped. "I don't understand. This isn't like her to ignore calls. And how exactly did Gold get out of here without me knowing about it? And what was that light?"

She opened her mouth to tell her that she had no answers, but it wasn't necessary, a moment later her own phone began to ring.

"It's Rumple!" she exclaimed. "Rumple, what happened, did you find-"

"Can you bring Snow White to the Sorcerer's House? The place we went to after we were married, do you remember that?" he interrupted.

"Of course but-"

"Quickly, Belle."

She glanced over at Snow who was listening intently to the conversation that she was having with him.

"He wants us to go to the Sorcerer's Mansion, it's uh...it's this place where we went after-"

"I know what the Sorcerer's Mansion is, but..." Snow was quiet for a few seconds, and appeared to be considering her words for reasons she didn't understand until she shook her head. "No," she finally stated shaking her head. "Not until Emma has told me it's okay."

Frustrated, she turned back to the phone. "Rumple, did you hear that?"

But she knew he had. Not only because there was talking on the other end, but because a few seconds later her phone rang. Emma told her the same thing that Rumple had and only a few minutes later she and Snow White were on the road sharing a very quiet ride through Storybrooke, to the place that she had taken Rumple after they'd been married for their "honeymoon". She maintained a calm demeanor, but inside her heart felt as though it was going to explode out of her chest at any moment. He'd promised he'd find Gideon. He'd promised that he'd talk to him. She hadn't seen her son for over a week, was this the day that all turned around? Was her boy with her husband? Had it worked? Would she finally be able to speak with him.

The house was not as she remembered and she struggled to hold on to that happy feeling that she'd felt before in the car as she looked at it. The doors, even the windows were covered with something white, like thread or cotton. If she didn't know any better she would have thought the owner of the mansion was playing some kind of Halloween prank, imitating a spider web. Snow stared at it in confusion as well. They made their way up to what was once the main door and Snow was the first to put her hands into it and pull it away so that they could enter, but-

"Oh!" she gasped when she realized it stuck to her hands and wouldn't come off. It was only after they found a rough branch that they were able to scrape most of it away, though when she closed and opened her hand she could still hear the sound of skin sticking together.

"What is all this?" she questioned turning her nose up at the door.

"I don't know, but I know how I'm going to find out." Without further invitation, she pushed open the front door and made her way into the house only to find that it wasn't just the exterior walls that were covered with the stuff, but the halls, the lights, the entryways, the banisters. The strange web-like substance was on everything. But it wasn't the only thing in the house. She could hear voices; Emma for certain, talking to Rumple she assumed though the voice was muffled by the thick webs.

"Emma?!" Snow called out. The girl responded and so little by little the pair of them traveled through whatever openings and crevices they could find in the thresholds, making their way toward their family while doing their best to avoid being covered with the stuff again. They should have kept that stick; it would have been useful.

"Are you okay?!" Snow finally shrieked ahead of her, moving quickly through the small opening she was currently about to make her way through. Her heart raced as she followed after her and looked around but she didn't see Gideon, only Emma. And Rumple. The two of them standing a fair distance from each other.

"Yeah, I'll never look at Spider-man again the same way, but I'm fine," Emma commented once Snow reached her.

"Rumple," she muttered stepping up to him hopefully. He could still be here. In the bathroom or in another room…he could. "Where's our boy?"

His face bore no trace of the excitement she knew it would have if everything was as okay as she'd dared to hope it might be. And the silence that passed between the pair of them, then between all four of them as each pair stood their ground on opposite sides of the room spoke for itself. Something had gone wrong here.

"Gideon led Emma to the creature, then left her to die."

Her heart sank at the words, and her stomach plummeted as if each phrase was a blow to her soul with an iron fist. He'd left Emma to die? After asking for help?! She turned back to look the girl over and couldn't believe it. She looked fine! Not a mark on her! Gideon couldn't have!

"I thought you were helping him?!" Snow snarled looking not at Emma but rather at Rumple with a fire in her eyes like she'd never seen before in her life. No. That was a lie. She had seen that look before, only a handful of times but not on Snow or anyone else she knew. It had been in her own eyes every time Rumple had threatened Gideon while he was still safe within her. Snow was angry. Angrier than she'd ever seen her before.

"I was," Emma responded in a low irritated growl. "Dark One Junior had different plans. He played me."

"He came to you for help though!" she yelled at her, unable to contain her anger at their attitude much longer! Everyone earned grace from them it seemed except for her son.

"Belle, I know you want to believe the best in him, but it's like you said. Evil is not born it is made, and that is exactly what the Black Fairy did to him!"

"Careful with your accusations Miss Swan," Rumple muttered stepping forward when she couldn't form words. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. How often had she babysat Neal for them? How many dresses had she made Snow White to hide her pregnancy in the Enchanted Forest? How many times had she helped them fight spells and curses?! Suddenly all of that was nothing as they were plotting her son's wickedness?! This was the line drawn now? Did she really expect her to side with them and allow them to kill her son?! "May I remind you, I saved your life tonight."

"Because your son tried to kill me, again!"

"He needs help!" Rumple insisted as she tried to swallow what had happened. Gideon set a trap and left Emma for dead to save the children. Rumple saved her to save Gideon. They wanted him dead just because he'd attacked Emma? "You're a hero Miss Swan, Gideon is my son."

"You can't keep cleaning up his messes, Gold! He needs to take responsibility for his actions!" Emma shouted back.

"Are you threatening my child?" Rumple questioned, a hint of threat clear in his own voice at the accusation.

"I don't have a choice. He's tried to kill me twice I'm not going to give him a third chance!"

That was the most ridiculous thing that she'd ever heard. As if Gideon was the only threat to this town, as if Gideon was the only one who had ever threatened her life! What about Regina? She'd tried to kill Emma when she'd first arrived, Rumple had told her that long ago. Was she taking responsibility for those actions with her life? Or Zelena?! She had attacked them, cursed them all, kidnapped Neal, and tortured Rumple! Yet now she was now living with Robin on the outskirts of town in peace with everything she'd ever wanted! How was that fair?! How was any of this fair?! She could see Snow White's anger, she understood it, but how could she, how dare she, think they would just stand aside and let them kill their child to save her own child, especially when Gideon was not the true cancer here. He was merely a symptom of the true cancer. He could be healed!

"If you cross my son, I will do what I must to stop you," Rumple vowed, taking a step forward without hesitation. She wished she could do the same. She thought the same, she was on his side in that vow, for once, but she hated this because she knew, deep down, they were not acting like themselves. They were good people, and she could understand their perspective, but it was just so unlike them. It seemed selfish, and perhaps even stubborn. They had all faced evil after evil after evil and she knew that it was tiring but to take it out on her son...

She could play that game if necessary and she would if Gideon required it. But she didn't understand why he was any different than Zelena and Regina, why they were unwilling to help.

"We didn't start this fight!" Snow White shouted back at him, as if that was the great secret to justify all of this. Her logic was the same. They hadn't started the fight with Zelena either…this wasn't justice.

"Let's go home," Snow finally declared without looking at Emma. The pair of them had their gaze locked on Rumple, obviously seeing him as more of the threat than her.

Then they departed without a further word or glance in her direction.

* * *

 **Yuck. Sorry, this is just one of those scenes that didn't translate well in the end. Pretty straightforward but certainly one of my weaker chapters. You have my apologies.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973, Fox24, and Paintbrush123 for your comments on the last chapter. Lots of interesting thoughts on that chapter as well. I am sorry, by the way that I cut this chapter off here. I had thought about putting it with the next chapter, but in the end I decided to separate them. Again, it goes back to what I said in an earlier chapter. This is a Rumbelle vs. Mom and Daughter chapter. I didn't want it to be a Rumbelle vs. Mom and Daughter chapter and Rumbelle chapter. Hopefully, you'll think it's a good choice once you've read the next chapter. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	38. Her Anchor

The moment they left the room, long before she knew they could be out of the house, she felt her legs begin to tremble and sat down on the sofa before her before she could collapse. She hated this. All of this, both sides of it. All she wanted was to do good. To help her son, to save the children, and help Emma. Wasn't that the right thing to do in this situation? And yet, according to Snow, it wasn't the right thing. Help Emma, but don't the children and sacrifice Gideon to do it. It was mind boggling to her. All these years of preaching they were family…families supported each other; they loved each other. They did not raise individual members up as more important than the other! Gideon was Neal's brother, whether he shared her blood or not as far as she was concerned Neal belonged to her just as Gideon did and that made Gideon Henry's Uncle. He had just as much right to Gideon as Regina and Zelena and baby Neal. Did that not matter to either of them? Zelena and Gideon were so similar. Both raised by terrible people, both had magic, both had family, both, loathed as she was to admit it, were abandoned at birth. Both had done terrible things…she couldn't defend her son, a bad thing was a bad thing and he shouldn't have tried to kill Emma. The true question was whether or not an explanation could excuse the behavior.

She believed this could; especially if they were going to say that Zelena's past excused her own behavior. How could two similar people be given different sentences? It wasn't fair. And suddenly she felt more betrayed than she ever had in her life. And that included a very hurtful betrayal at a town line. Her friends weren't her friends anymore, and her last true friend was out in the middle of some forest! Her father would never forgive her for Gideon...she hated it. She hated all of this.

"He's ripping us apart!" she burst out looking at Rumple. This was the part that seemed too strange to her. Everything was backward and upside-down again. Suddenly the people who she had most depended on for months were gone. And the man that she thought she'd never trust again in a hundred lifetimes was her only ally. Gideon was simultaneously ripping their family apart but drawing them closer together. How had this happened so fast?

"Gideon has been here a matter of days and look at all the destruction he's caused," she choked out.

She couldn't take this. She couldn't bear it. She hadn't been able to tolerate it with Rumple, but with Gideon, she had to, and it wasn't just tearing apart her relationships it was tearing her soul in two.

"Don't listen to them," Rumple encouraged taking a seat beside her. "They only see the world in Black and White."

That was just the thing though! The world was black and white! He'd said it himself! Magic was Black and White, but people were varying shades of gray. But that was the part that bothered her the most. Gideon was gray, but the things he was doing…they were black. Very black. When she looked back upon the things that had happened since he'd been here, she knew that if he weren't her son she'd have been on that side of the room claiming he was a villain right along with them.

"They're right!" she burst out, unable to fight away her thoughts. He had tried to kill Emma. Twice! Would a tortured childhood excuse murder if he succeeded? "We've lost him!"

She felt tears gather in her eyes as she fought to hang on to her only shred of hope. A tortured childhood had excused Zelena, but clearly they weren't willing to play by the same rules with her son, and that was what was driving her truly mad. Why were they so stubborn now, so single-minded?! Was it because Gideon had sent Killian across realms?! She'd never known Emma to be so crazy for love that it let her impeded her judgment, but even if this did, it still didn't excuse Snow White's behavior. She was the one who had upset her the most. Emma she could forgive. But Snow's attitude, her tone of voice, all of it…it was inexcusable in her mind. She was more hypocritical than she'd ever been.

"We can still bring him back to us, Belle," Rumple assured her, a shockingly encouraging voice in the midst of her anguish. She wanted to believe that. With everything that she had she wanted to believe that they could save their son from what was coming, and help the children, and destroy the Black Fairy, and make the others see him for who he truly was! But she was running out of good thoughts to conquer the world and keep her on her feet. She never seemed to get the things she wished for.

"How?" she questioned, searching desperately in his eyes for something to hold on to.

"The Black Fairy isn't here with him now…we are," he explained. "Whatever damage that woman did to him in the past…it's over." Suddenly, something warm and strong encircled the hand on her knee and squeezed. With nothing to hold on to, it appeared someone was holding on to her. And it was him. She stared transfixed at the sight for a moment then looked back up into his eyes and saw her own tears echoed there.

"I promise," he vowed.

Oh, how the times had changed. Sitting there, on that couch together had somehow reminded her of a distant time when all of this had been flipped. When she'd been wearing cheap clothes and far too much hairspray. When he'd been the one to exclaim how he'd failed because he'd lost his son. There hadn't been a hope in the world for him then, and she'd held him in his dark place promising silently to make it as alright as she could for as long as she could until their world ended. She'd kept him anchored to their world and their life for as long as demanded.

Now it was her turn.

If she thought back on all that had happened, the days that she had gone with the truth of what their decisions had led to for their son…she didn't want to go on. She had thought that they were getting somewhere with Gideon and then all of a sudden they were back at square one. The inevitable outcome of this would be that either Gideon would die or Emma would die and she knew Emma and her family well enough to know that it wouldn't be her. In trying to send her son to a better life, she had doomed him. Unless they could do something extraordinary, like find Gideon this moment and get him to cross the town line, be safely away from Emma, she was going to be responsible for his death.

She didn't know how much more of this torture she could endure. She was tired, far more than she ever had been in her life. And though she wouldn't have been happy about it, she would have been fine just to sit on this little couch forever, drifting in her own thoughts, unaware of what was happening out in their world because she wasn't sure that she had much hope anymore for how all of this was going to turn out. Wallowing in the present was better than mourning in the future.

But then there was his grip on her hand, the light touch of his fingers on her knee, and the sturdiness she saw in the chocolate brown eyes she'd see the first time she had kissed him by his spinning wheel. Her friends, her enemies, her family, even her son had failed her. Rumpelstiltskin remained. A thick tether to possibility and hope, a glue holding her soul together when it wanted so desperately to be allowed to shatter into a million pieces, so she didn't have to feel any of this anymore. She didn't know how to reconcile Gideon's past to his present, whether she was in the right or Snow and Emma were, but she knew that if it weren't for the hand over her own and the body next to her she wouldn't be capable of sitting here and speaking, or thinking, or even acting.

Once upon a time, she'd been his anchor to life. Now he was her own. A small light in a vast ocean of darkness. Small as it was, it was enough.

And so she clung to it. Before tears fell down her cheeks, she pushed herself over the few inches dividing them and wrapped her arms around his neck and lay her head upon his shoulder. She cried into the collar of his shirt, wrinkled his jacket as she held it in chunks with her fists, and left behind salt water blotches where each of her tears fell. But through the tears and bone-crunching embraces, he held on to her. It was different than the moment they'd both hugged each other the other day, when they'd been equals, equally surprised, equally relieved, equally receiving. This was one-sided. She clung, and he held. He took not one bit of comfort for himself but managed to pour it all back into her.

She'd always known love was give and take, but she'd never really understood it until this minute when going on required she take everything, even with nothing to give.

* * *

 **This chapter was not meant to be a redo but rather meant to be an echo of a previous moment, even the chapter title suggests that. Waaaaaay back in season 2, when Rumple woke Belle from being Lacey, and she realized Neal was dead (or so they thought) and wasn't coming back, that chapter was called "His Anchor". I believe, because of the way I've changed things, that title has now been changed as well, but essentially these two chapters match in every aspect, except one is Rumple resigned to the loss of his child and Belle comforting him, and this one is Belle resigned to the loss of her child and Rumple comforting her. I like this because even though I hate what happened with the Charming Family from here on out, I feel like the spat they had in the last chapter encouraged what happens under the surface here in a way. In drawing a line and saying "it's Emma or Gideon" they form teams. And so this is the point where Rumple and Belle stop simply "working together" and become a team again. And that is a pretty magical thing.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, Fox24, and Rumbellefan for your really awesome comments! Lots to think about in what is happening in these scenes. We're getting into that part where I think the show tried really hard to make a cohesive story, but simply didn't have the time to explain everything that was happening. Hopefully, you'll like the scenes that I've added for the next few episodes. Hopefully they will work to bring it all together so that there is a lot less randomness in some of the actions. Obviously, in a couple of the past chapters, we've already talked about the dragon egg which really helps us with the sudden "oh look! A dragon egg in the back of the shop" scene. We'll see what you think! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	39. A Sudden Detour

At long last, after her tears had ended. After the pair of them had sat huddled there together on the couch for a while, Rumple muttered that they should be going. He offered her a handkerchief from his pocket, which she attempted to use to wipe her eyes with, but they'd sat there for so long after her last tear that they had dried on her cheeks. Using his magic, he melted the white substance from some of the hallways and cleared a path for her to use the bathroom to wash her face.

She looked awful; simply terrible. The skin on her cheeks was red and raw, her eyelids puffy, and her eyes themselves…they seemed to be empty pits when she looked at herself in the mirror. How Rumple had ever seen clarity or love or even anger in them she didn't know. Nor could she figure out how she'd ever smiled with the mouth that seemed permanently turned down in sorrow. Her reflection was almost harder to bear than Gideon's workings around town.

When she at last opened the door, she found Rumple attempting to burn more of the white stuff away, but he loyally returned to her side the moment he heard her stir. She swallowed and crossed her arms over her chest in an effort to keep herself together when he asked if she felt better. Physically, she supposed, but this was going to take a lot more than a splash of cold water to her face to heal.

"What happened here?" she managed to choke out instead. "You mentioned a creature?"

"A spider," he answered. "A big one. Gideon set it on Emma. The monster tried to cocoon her in web and suffocate her when I showed up."

Her gut gave another wrench. A spider set upon a hero, where had she heard that before? "I suppose I'm to blame for that idea. In _Her Handsome Hero_ Gideon battles with a spider in the woods."

"Yes," Rumple echoed. "It's one of his tests."

She stared at him in utter astonishment for a moment, as what he said sank in.

"You've read it?" she asked confused. He was well read, but this was the first time in all the years that she'd known him that he'd suggested anything that ever sounded to her like he had read the book himself.

He nodded. "Of course," he answered. "It's one of your favorites."

Those words threatened to make her break down into tears all over again. Except for the circumstances this time would be different. While the other tears had made her truly want to break, these words she felt silently healed her in a way. Not all of her, probably not even a fraction, but they gave her a warm feeling when all she felt inside was something cold. After the day she had, she couldn't entirely blame herself for wanting to enjoy that feeling.

He escorted her out to the car, putting his suit jacket over her shoulders, helping to keep that fragile warmth she felt alive in some way. He drove. They'd never actually spoken about it, he just led her to the passenger seat, and she was glad that she could stare out the window, watching the lights flash by, and try to dull her mind to before all this. Before the mansion, before her and Snow, before Emma and Snow, back to this morning when she'd had a theory and he'd said…

She finally picked her head up as she recalled the conversation they'd started but never really finished.

"Rumple?" He made a sound to let her know that he was listening, but told her that his mind was just as elsewhere as her own had been a few seconds ago. "What you said earlier, do you think it's true? Do you think that the Black Fairy will send more trouble for all of us?"

He took a deep breath and then exhaled loudly, as if he was rousing himself from sleep. "The Black Fairy has caused this much damage just trapped in her own realm. She won't stop, Belle. Whatever it is that she wants, she'll only rest once she has it."

And unfortunately, neither of them seemed to know what that was. They weren't quite sure what her plan was for Gideon or what she was hoping to accomplish, all they knew was what she suspected this morning, that Gideon was trying to help the children. But after today…

"Do you think it's possible, after everything that happened today, that I'm right? That Gideon is trying to help the children."

"Yes, though I do believe there might be more going on than we realize. But he wouldn't be the first one to attempt to cover his guilt in the wrong way."

"I tried to tell Snow when we were at the library. I tried to explain about the children."

"How did she take that news?"

"We didn't really have time to finish the conversation. I only just told her that children might be involved when…"

The light.

Her eyes widened, and she felt a tingle spread through her body as she recalled the conversation that she'd had with Snow White and along with it the reason they'd had to stop having that conversation. She'd forgotten about the light in the tower. Until now.

"We have to go to the clocktower," she realized.

"What?"

"The clocktower!" she exclaimed, turning to face him. "Rumple, there was a light there, a bright one!"

"What was it?"

"I don't know I was too busy being held prisoner to investigate at the time and then you called. But Rumple we have to go figure it out now!"

There were endless possibilities for what they could have seen in the clocktower. Possibilities that included Gideon and possibilities that excluded Gideon. But Rumple didn't question her commands. At the next intersection, he turned the car around and drove back toward the library. Of course, she could sense that he didn't want her there and would have preferred for her to stay in the car, but he didn't argue as she got out of the car and followed him inside. In return, she pretended not to notice the way he operated the elevator or stood protectively in front of her when the doors opened again and looked around quietly. She glanced over his shoulder but saw no one. The tower was just as empty and quiet as it always was. Except for the fact that she was certain it hadn't been empty earlier that night. And Rumple...the look on his face seemed to suggest something other than "empty and quiet".

"Rumple?" she questioned looking him over. Concern was very clearly etched into the lines on his face as he looked around the room, his eyes scanning every inch of it with a precision that told her he was looking for someone or something.

"Magic has touched this place," he whispered.

The lighter optimistic part of her that was dying for some break in the tension wanted so badly to point out that magic had touched all of Storybrooke and for him to laugh, assure her that it was nothing serious, and the pair of them could leave. But the realistic part of her, the part that had been through too much today to be optimistic about anything, knew that this was beyond that. She struggled to remember a time when he'd had a reaction similar to this and everything had been alright, but it proved to be impossible. This was certainly something serious she'd stumbled upon.

"What kind of magic?" she questioned.

"Deep magic," he answered. "Dark Magic…"

With that he finally stepped out of the elevator but slowly as he continued to look around. He didn't stop her from doing the same, so he must have at least believed it was safe at the moment, but he continued to investigate with determination. She watched as he put his hand on the wall of the tower and moved around as though he was feeling for something. He felt the railing, the walls, took his time climbing the steps…

But when he got to the top and stood at the clock face he paused, then turned back around and stared into nothingness. Something invisible between the two of them.

"But there is an echo of light magic here too," he muttered concentrating on that spot she couldn't see. She moved closer, and touched the wall in the same spot he had, but felt nothing. To her, it was just the clock tower; if she hadn't seen the blast of light earlier, she would never have known something had happened here. But she had seen it, and she was smart enough to decipher what he was saying. Deep dark and light magic…there was only one person…Gideon.

"What did he do?" she questioned desperately. "What spell did he cast?"

Rumple stared at that same place hovering in the air for a moment, like it was a thought he was afraid he might scare away if he looked away from it. But she could see that whatever it was he wouldn't catch it no matter how much he wanted to. There was too much confusion in his eyes.

"I can't tell," he answered predictably.

Her heart was racing as she tried to logically think through what had happened and what Gideon might do with the events of the day. He had the sword; he was convinced he had to kill Emma to become the Savior for the other realm…did he know she wasn't dead? What would his first move be if he thought she was?

"Rumple, he thought he killed Emma, he didn't go back did he?!" she asked fearfully. If he thought his task was accomplished here, then he might go back there to free the children and then she was sure that nothing could be done for him here, not unless they figured out how to get to that realm?! And if Gideon hadn't succeeded in killing Emma and went back to face the Black Fairy, he'd lose! She could kill him for rebelling!

"I can't tell…" he repeated still examining that space. She couldn't quite fathom how he managed to look so calm when she felt as if she was ripping apart at the seams. Rumple stared for a few moments longer, even reached out his hand to touch that same place in the empty space he'd been staring into. But then, quite suddenly he reached his arm back and finally turned to meet her gaze.

"We need to return to the house," he insisted making his way down the stairs and meeting her at the elevator.

"Rumple..."

"I need to use the books, research a couple of things."

"Rumple you're scaring me!" she stated grabbing his arm before he could walk past her into the elevator. He had an idea of what had happened. She knew he did and Gideon... "What did he do?"

Unable to move away with her grip on his arm he stared down at her and sighed. "I can't be sure," he assured her. "But the truth is that he didn't kill Emma, he hasn't managed to acquire her power, so whatever happened here, I doubt he used magic to get back to that place."

That eased her a bit but not by much. Something had happened in this room and if Rumple didn't deny it was Gideon then what happened?

"What do you think he did?" she questioned.

"Something I can't be sure about because I'm positive that he wasn't able to complete what he started. He's still here, Belle. I feel certain of that. But in order to know what he did here I need to use some books in the basement, and you-"

"Need sleep?" she provided before he could make the suggestion. "I know."

It was hard even to begin to consider doing such a thing. But, oddly enough, she trusted that he was telling her the truth, that Gideon was still in this world and after the events of today, she was in complete agreement with him. If he couldn't put words to what he felt, then there was nothing that she could do. With all other options exhausted, oblivion would be a welcome friend.

* * *

 **I don't know if anyone thought about this, but the thing about Gideon in the tower is that the light was bright. Super bright! Like, so bright, I can't imagine it wouldn't draw attention in at least some way. And when I thought about this episode, I couldn't think of a scenario in which Belle wouldn't have been someone who noticed that. The Pawn Shop, the library, the diner, even Snow's apartment! It would have been seen from everywhere but home and I was fairly certain that during all of this she didn't go home. So here we have my explanation of her and Rumple going to the tower to investigate. Is it filler? Yes. Yes, it is. But...hopefully it's somewhat enjoyable.**

 **Thank you, thank you, thank you to Fox24, Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, and Rumbellefan for your reviews and your support through this fiction. I'm hoping you won't mind this chapter. It's not my favorite. I worked on it for a long while and it's been edited within an inch of its life. I'm still not happy with it, so I hope you'll find it acceptable. By the way, I forgot to mention it a couple of chapters back, but we are officially halfway through. Exciting, no? I hope you are enjoying it so far. Up next we have the 6x17 chapters. Onward we go! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	40. His Two Mothers

There was always one positive thing that she found to feeling so depressed she could not stand: sleep came easily. After the day she'd had she would have thought that when she finally arrived home with Rumple, it would have taken her hours for sleep to claim her. But after they heated up some leftover soup, after she took the time to prepare for bed and then slid beneath the sheets, she fell into a slumber so deep that Rumple had to wake her the next morning. Graciously and modestly as that night he'd been human, he simply knocked on the door to rouse her and then left her to shower and change into clothes that actually belonged to her this time around. Downstairs he had been busy preparing eggs, and when she arrived, she took his place while he took his shower and dressed in a new suit. It was only once they were both sitting at the table that she dared to ask him if he'd found anything about the spell last night; if he'd managed to identify it or at least had a hint about it. He answered only that he was still looking, which she understood as a "no".

"Books?" he muttered when they finally set foot inside the shop again. All of a sudden she remembered the books she'd sent Snow White to retrieve, the books that would hopefully lead them onward in his Dragon Egg theory. She also remembered where they still were and why they were still there.

"Still in the library. I meant to explore your dragon egg with them, but I got distracted by the light in the clocktower," she explained with a sigh. "I'll get them."

"I'll come with you." Whether out of fear, because he believed she needed a bodyguard, or because he just wanted to offer to help carry the haul she wasn't sure. But there was one thing about his tone that she was able to deduce. He wasn't coming because he didn't trust her with them. It was nice to at least have a little of that back again.

The pair of them went over to the library, gathered the books she needed in two piles, then returned them to the shop. He set them on top of the glass counter and then began to sort them, figuring out what she wanted and didn't want before he took one he was particularly interested in and began to page through it there. She'd take her own into the back, where she could do her research and keep an eye on the Blue Fairy at the same time. With any luck, she could pick up right where she left off yesterday. Nothing had changed, it was still essential to figure out how to wake the Blue Fairy for any information she might have. She just had to figure out if his Dragon Egg theory held any weight in this situation.

"Belle," he called before she could disappear behind the curtains. She stared back at him and found him examining her in a soft yet concerned sort of way. It was almost bashful, and she blushed, unable to remember the last time he'd looked at her in such a way.

"Perhaps around lunch time we should go to Granny's," he suggested carefully.

"Granny's?" she questioned heaving the books higher up against her chest. "Why Granny's?"

"Just for a break. A burger. A change of scenery…might be good for the mind and eyes."

She was unsure how anything that wasn't helping their son could be good for anything, but if he thought it might help, then she trusted that. Besides, it might be nice just to have a lunch away and let her mind rest…that was probably what he'd meant all along.

"Just so long as it's not too long," she answered.

"Quick as we can be," he responded with an encouraging smile before she darted into the back room to lay her books out on the table. She decided to start with the one that she had, the one Rumple had originally read the passage in. He hadn't told her where, and though she knew it would be easier to simply go out and ask him where he'd found it she decided to leave him to his own devices, as she made herself comfortable and began the search for whatever he might have read that made him think-

Out front, she heard the bell to the shop chime and felt a twist in her stomach as her eyes darted from the Blue Fairy to the closed curtain that concealed her presence. It couldn't be Emma and Snow again. Could it?

"Hello, Rumple!"

It wasn't Emma. Or Snow. The voice was vaguely familiar, but not so familiar that she could place it. Still, it made her shudder all the same. It was the small laugh that followed which left her feeling on edge. It was sinister and evil, crazed. But the woman, whoever she was had called him Rumple, so she knew it had to be someone who knew him from the Enchanted Forest otherwise they would have called him Gold the way Emma did. Still, she couldn't figure out who-

"I believe the greeting you're looking for is 'Hello Mother'."

And suddenly reality crept into her with chilly understanding. She didn't need a mirror to know that her face had gone white.

Mother. The Black Fairy!

She was nearly as stunned as Rumple must have been. She could hear it in his silence and in his voice when he finally asked "how did you get here?"

"I had a little help…" She was on her feet, one step closer to him when she glanced again over at Blue, unsure what to do as she heard footsteps in the shop. Some were obviously Rumple's, but others were not. She knew this shop well, the sounds and creaks that it made and right now she knew that someone else had just come into the store. Someone working with The Black Fairy. Gideon. It could be no one else. If they learned the Blue Fairy wasn't dead...

"Father," he greeted casually.

"Gideon," Rumple breathed. She certainly was fearful of the Black Fairy and knew that Rumple wouldn't want her to unveil herself, but the thought that Gideon was out there had her halfway to the curtain before she considered what she would be leaving behind.

There were things, here this shop, in this very room, that she couldn't let Gideon find, or probably the Black Fairy either, especially given their history. She couldn't leave them unprotected.

"So, taking the Savior's power, becoming a hero, all a ruse in order to bring her here."

Quickly, as they continued to talk, she threw some pillows on top of the body of Mother Superior then covered it with a large blanket. It was the best she could do on short notice. It wasn't perfect, but at least it hid the form of a body. And as far as she knew Gideon hadn't been back here yet. He wouldn't know it wasn't always like that. As for the books, the only two they had of the Black Fairy…she could remember Zelena burning an entire library in the Enchanted Forest once, just because she didn't want them to learn about her, she couldn't risk the Black Fairy finding them and letting something similar happen to these books.

"I'm sorry father."

She stared at the place in the floor where she knew the secret compartment was hidden and suddenly missed her teacup. It would have been the perfect place to hide them if the key hadn't been destroyed.

"She's my mother."

So instead she picked them up, then carefully, quietly, and quickly stuffed them into a cabinet against a wall.

"Maybe one day you'll understand."

The books hidden, she pressed her hands to her face and finally allowed herself to take in her son's voice and all that he had been saying to his father. It was the declaration that squeezed her chest so much she felt like she could barely breathe. It was a good thing she'd finished her task prior o considering his words. If she hadn't, she wouldn't have been able to stop herself from finally pushing her way out into the main room with little thought to look back on the haphazard job she might have done.

"No!" she breathed when she finally went through the curtain. The woman seemed unaware of her presence and was examining something on the glass case but she had just enough of a view of her to know that the Black Fairy was just as she remembered her. Dressed in all black, pale even in the sun, large mouth, small eyes. The Black Fairy.

And standing behind her also dressed in black clothes, different from what she'd seen before, but standing just as tall as the last time she'd seen him was her son. The one who had just uttered the words that erased all fear from her mind at the sight of the Black Fairy. She didn't care how powerful she was, or how she'd gotten free from her world and into this one, she was not her son's mother!

She could barely stand the thought of it. As far as she was concerned, she didn't even deserve the right to call him grandson after what he'd done to both her husband and her son.

"What's going on?"

Finally, the woman looked up at her. "Belle!" she breathed walking in her direction. "So lovely to make your acquaintance," she smiled.

She ignored her at the sight of someone else moving closer to her. It was Gideon. He was stalking toward her just as she was but the hunch in his back was far different than her own. The Black Fairy was trying to intimidate her. But Gideon had sensed danger and was stepping toward her protectively. It was the same stance that she had seen a hundred times before because it was identical to the one used by his father and his brother. He would have stopped his so-called mother if she raised a hand to his real mother. She knew it in her heart. And it was enough to reignite a spark of hope in her chest she'd been missing since last night.

He wasn't lost to them. He couldn't be. And suddenly she had the strength to fight for whatever little bit of him she could still appeal to until the day she died.

"Gideon…no matter what you have done to help her, you can always come back to us," she plead, extending her arm and for the first time in a long while wishing that Rumpelstiltskin would take it. His warmth had been something to hold onto last night, she could use that again.

"Oh, he's not going anywhere," the Black Fairy answered for him. Gideon, who had been watching her gently suddenly dropped his gaze almost shamefully, and it broke her heart. He was her prisoner. There was no doubt in her mind. She wanted to free him, and if that meant they had to keep him safe from the Black Fairy and Emma for the rest of their lives then so be it.

"Yes, well, we'll see about that!" Rumple muttered. Suddenly to her left she saw him fetch a large vial that she had placed there during the time of the Queens of Darkness free and pop the cork. Odd how the only thing she wondered as she watched it all happen what this one would do! But she never got the opportunity to figure out. Before he could throw the contents upon his mother, he stopped and to her shock and horror his dagger, black and silver, was in her hands.

"Put it down," she ordered in a clear and nasty tone. She'd heard parents rebuke their children with words like that a dozen times, but she'd never realized how much love and care they had for them, even in moments of anger, until she heard her voice. There was not a hint of love for her son anywhere. And as she heard the sound of Rumple following the command she suddenly had the frame of thought to worry about whether or not the back door was unlocked and if she had the keys to open it. If the Black Fairy had the dagger, then that made everyone in this room a potential threat to her and her potentially the only one capable of helping them all. If things got worse and she ran for the back door, would she make it?

"There's a good boy," she breathed before lowing the dagger to examine it. "Don't look so surprised, I practically invented dark magic. But worry not…I won't force you to do anything. When you join me, it will be because you want to."

Her eyes darted between Rumple and the Black Fairy, completely and utterly baffled at the same time she was disgusted. She wanted Rumple too? That was certainly news to the pair of them. And why now, after all these years was she suddenly so desperate to have the son she'd once abandoned back in her life?! She couldn't take him too. She wouldn't let her take them both. Unless of course if Rumple, or rather the Dark One was tempted to-

"Is that why you're here?" Rumple questioned with a snarl. "Because I will never join you."

"Oh, when the Darkness comes…you'll change your mind," she declared with a smile. "And then…" she took a step back toward the curtain as the Fairy came closer, only to find it wasn't toward them, but only toward him, so that nothing but the counter separated them. She lay the dagger upon its glass surface. "Rumpelstiltskin…we can finally be the family we were always meant to be."

Oh, she had quite a few things to say about that assumption, as well as that smile stretched across her big mouth and-

Before she could say anything, she had vanished in a cloud of smoke, leaving the dagger behind on the case, but taking her son with her.

* * *

 **::Flails wildly:: I'm sorry, can I just...the stupidest thing throughout this entire series, the stupidest, is the fact that A &E seem to keep forgetting the fact that the Pawn Shop is not only a small place but the back room is separated by a curtain! Not a door. A curtain! A single piece of fabric! I really hate it every time someone comes out of that back room and looks shocked and says "what's going on up here?" as if they didn't hear a conversation through the sheet hanging over the door! Or, better yet, when they enter a conversation about a minute in as if they didn't hear the door open, the bell chime, and someone walk across the old floor! Either they are completely oblivious, or for some reason, they just said "huh, you know, I know the front door is convenient, but I'm going to walk through the dark, scary ally, open the back door slowly, so it doesn't make a sound either, and then be surprised by what I missed." Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid. I can't allow that in my fiction. So, hopefully with, but perhaps without, your blessing, I added a little bit of explanation for why Belle would be "late to the party" and why she might pretend not to hear what's going on. For your consideration...**

 **Big thank yous to Fox24, Grace5231973, and Paintbrush123 for your continued reviews! They are, as always, a joy to read. And now that my little rant is over let me formally welcome you to the 6x17 chapters. I actually really liked the way that this episode shook out in this fiction. I've got a couple of surprises for you along the way that I think you are really going to enjoy. I'm looking forward to sharing it with you and hope you're excited for it as well. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	41. Less Than Comforting Details

So he was right. The Black Fairy would not have let Gideon come here without a good reason, no matter how bad that good reason was. Maybe it was all a ruse, maybe there were no children, maybe this was all he'd wanted from the beginning: to bring the Black Fairy to Storybrooke. But why?

When she glanced over at Rumple to ask, she saw him stagger and take a few steps back as though he'd been slapped. Her mind was still working, he, on the other hand, was still reeling from the shock of it.

"Rumple?"

She rushed forward without a thought and threw her arms around his waist. But he was bigger than her, and if he didn't try, she couldn't hold him up on her own. But her weight was all that was needed. It forced him to come back to her, slowly enough that he almost seemed startled by her presence for a moment, but eventually wrapped his arms around her in return, though the grip was slack enough to tell her he was still whirling from his mother's surprise visit.

"It's okay. It's okay, Belle," he breathed into her ear. Obviously, he thought she was the shaken one, but she could hear the breathy unassured tone in his voice. He was telling himself just as much as he was telling her. And it wasn't a fact; it was a prayer.

"Are you alright?" she questioned pulling away and attempting to look him in the eye. But he wouldn't meet her gaze. He couldn't. He was still staring at the place his mother had been. What lay unprotected on the table was of no interest to him, but it caught her eye. And considering how simply it had been retrieved…

Standing on his own, she let her husband go for a second and reached out to take the dagger off the table. She placed it back in his hands and forced his fingers to curl around the hilt.

"Where was it?" she questioned.

"In the safe," he answered staring down at it bewildered.

She shook her head, embarrassed for him that he'd kept it somewhere so vulnerable. "You have to do better than that," she warned quietly.

Finally, he glanced up at her, with eyes that reflected no other emotion other than complete and utter confusion. It was a look she'd only ever seen on him after Bae had died.

"I'm not sure I can," he whispered back.

In his still silence, she realized that as much as she wanted to fall to pieces right now at what had just happened, he was already shattered. If both of them were destroyed…

She took the dagger from his hand too easily, and he allowed her to slid it into the inside of his jacket. The pocket there wasn't exactly sufficient for him, but if she had to create new openings tonight at the sewing machine to keep it safe, then she would. It may not stop the Black Fairy, but if it was close to him, then he might at least get some warning when it went missing.

"Come into the back," she ordered tugging on his hand. "Come and sit down." She had to do something to keep him from staring at that place she'd been, to shake him back to her somehow. He hadn't been this bad when they'd met in the Enchanted Forest, but then he'd been prepared and knew he was going to see her, not to mention she hadn't had the dagger under her power or their son then. This was different.

"Blue!" As he worked himself down onto the stool by the table, she attempted to move the blanket and pillows off of her so that-

"Leave it!" hissed Rumpelstiltskin behind her. She turned to find him watching her and looking over the mess that she'd created. "We can't know they won't come back, better to keep her hidden."

With such a haphazard job she was certain if she did it wouldn't matter, anyone would look there first. But she left it alone out of concern for the pronoun he'd used. "They". He'd lumped Gideon in with his mother and the look on his face now told her that he was prepared to throw in the towel just as she'd been last night and this morning until…

Until today, just now. It was funny how hope could return so quickly and glow so bright in her with just one motion. But that was exactly what had happened. Her son had moved toward her. He'd meant to protect her! There was good in him! And Rumple had sworn that he'd seen the pain in Gideon's eyes when he told him about the children and the other realm…he wouldn't make up a story like the one he'd told about the whipping, it was too detailed. There was something more going on with their son. The problem was the Black Fairy was here now. Last night the fact that she'd been in another realm was what Rumple had needed to hold himself together. With her here, now it was his turn to experience the hopelessness she'd felt last night.

Abandoning her post by the bed, she let herself lean against the table and crossed her arms over her chest thinking back to last night and the conversations they'd had. "I told them…I told Snow that something like this might happen," she whispered, thinking that it almost seemed prophetic. At least now they knew what spell Gideon had cast last night in the tower, or at least what the spell had done. He'd brought his false mother over from her Dark Realm, saving the children there at least by excusing her from them but…why? Why did she want to be here? And why did she want Rumple and…what was the Darkness she spoke of? The two books she'd read didn't answer any of those questions and now she found herself staring at the Black Fairy's son, wondering if there was anything that might help them not in the books, but inside his head. She wanted to be gentle and give him time. But with the fairy here, their time was suddenly up. It had to be done.

"Do you know about the Darkness she was talking? What it is?" she questioned looking down at him.

He shook his head as he looked up at her. "No. And if there were a massive use of Dark Magic in Storybrooke, I'd feel it. But I've felt none, not even now."

Which was why he hadn't sensed what Gideon had done last night, there was Light Magic at play too. Darkness and Light…a passage in one of the books she'd read theorized it was not just dark magic, but Light magic that had trapped her. Apparently, that was what was needed to free her as well. But for what?

"Rumple…" she hated to have to do this to him now, but if there ever was an emergency, this certainly counted. They needed what he might have in his mind. And she could still be gentle. "Can you think, do you know anything else about her that we haven't found yet, that the books might have gotten wrong…anything that might help us now."

He was quiet for a while, and she watched the expression in his eyes change to something far more tortured and painful than they'd been, but pensive as well. He didn't want to, but he was thinking.

"I know she must not have always been a fairy," he finally suggested timidly. It wasn't so much a fact as an assumption but one that she understood immediately.

"Right...because fairies don't have children," she confirmed. She knelt down next to his knees and put her hands over his own, hoping that he'd draw some kind of comfort from the contact the way they used to. "Do you know how she became one?" she questioned softly. "I mean, becoming a fairy doesn't exactly seem like something you can choose as a career path back home."

"There are several ways," he answered quietly. "Which one of those ways she used I couldn't tell you, but I'm sure the Blue Fairy could. I never asked."

She looked over her shoulder at the pile of pillows and blankets her friend's body was currently hiding under and shivered. They really needed to wake her, but the dragon egg was their only hint, and she hadn't found anything yet…

"Anything else," she prodded delicately. "Is there anything else you can think of?"

"Belle, you have to understand, I wasn't even told her name when I was growing up!"

His temper was growing. She was actually happy to see that. Having a temper with her, feeling anger, was far better than the state he'd been in a few moments ago where he'd expressed nothing. And the words themselves…she felt herself smirk because she wasn't sure when it had happened but sometime in the last few days she'd regained what seemed like an ancient skill she'd never thought she'd use again. The ability to read between his carefully crafted words. He wasn't told his mother's name, but there was a recognition in his eyes that could only mean one thing.

"But you do know it, don't you," she assumed.

He nodded. "I assumed. When I was little, my father kept a scrap of something under his pillow, one morning when I realized he hadn't come home I took advantage and saw what it was. It was a drawing, a sketch, done of some spare scrape of cloth in charcoal. And I don't know how I knew, but I knew it was a picture of my mother. There were letters written at the bottom, I couldn't read at the time, but I remember them."

"And you do read now…" she prompted.

"Fiona," he answered. "Her name was Fiona."

A name was good. He would be the first to admit that a name was an important thing, a powerful thing. She could do some research with that, cross reference great magic and a woman named Fiona, see if she turned up before she was the Black Fairy, when she was human. Going back further might shed some light on her.

"Anything else? Aunts or Uncles you might have stayed with as a child. Grandparents?"

He shook his head. "Never any family. I stayed with women I called aunt after my father left but they weren't related by blood. Just two old spinsters he knew. But I do…I remember when I was younger, before my father's drinking got out of hand…it might have been nothing."

"Sometimes nothing can help," she encouraged squeezing his hands tighter.

"It's an old memory, I can't really remember what happened. I must have tripped over a trader's stall and fallen down…the merchant called me a 'filthy wretch of a smuggler'. I thought nothing of it at the time, only later when I realized my father had never been a smuggler."

"You're sure?"

"My father had many vices, but that wasn't one of them," he recalled his eyes distant as if he was in another time. "He didn't have the mind to do something like that and not get caught. And he was sold into slavery by his own father and moved from another land, so it couldn't have referred to his parents."

She nodded in understanding. His father was a criminal but not a smuggler, his parents were slave traders, no smuggling there, and his mother had been a fairy. That left one group of the family tree unaccounted for.

"So maybe it was your grandparents. They might have been smugglers, or…or pirates," she realized, remembering that Neal had once told her the town they lived in had been by the sea. That might explain why he didn't have parents that took care of Rumple after his father left.

"I don't know," he answered sadly again, growing more and more numb with each word. She was losing him again.

"Is it possible Killian would?"

It was an innocent remark as he was the only pirate who was still alive from that time that she could think of but she knew immediately that it was the wrong comment.

"Would it matter?" he shouted pulling his hands free from her grasp and standing up from the chair he'd been in. They were back to anger. She jumped at the sudden violent action, but was quick to remind herself that anger was better than shock. "This isn't years ago, Belle, this is now! She wants me, and she wants our son! I don't see how identifying a family tree will help any more than it already has!" He settled finally against the table, hunching over it, putting so much weight there that she worried it might break under the strain. "There are other questions that need to be answered."

"Like what?" she muttered crossing her arms over herself again. It felt like it was the only thing she could do to contain the curiosity and sympathy swelling in her chest. "What questions do you want answered?"

It had been a long time since she had that urge to "make it all better" for him, but she felt it now. It was a struggle not to touch him, even knowing there was nothing she could do to help him. She took a few steps closer in the silence until she was standing side by side with him again. Until she was sure that he wasn't going to answer.

"Why did she give the dagger back?" he muttered finally.

"Th-the dagger," she staggered out. She stared at him, trying not to show just how taken back she was by the question. That piece of metal had been the farthest thing from her mind.

"If she wanted power over me she had it, so why give it back if that was what she wanted."

With a swallow she thought through his riddle and through the scene that had played out, realizing that it wasn't really a riddle after all. The Black Fairy had told him.

"I think she told you, Rumple. She wants you to join her."

"But why?" he breathed. "She's never seemed to want me around before now, if she wanted me then why leave when I was a boy? Why not just stay?"

Her heart fell as she realized history was repeating itself. It was just like they were in that forest again with the baby between them. He'd meant to ask her about magic and in the moment it had been lost for the same reason that focusing on the magic and Gideon was lost on him now. She was his mother. And he was a son abandoned by her. Ordinarily she might suspect any number of reasons why but knowing what she did about her she hadn't a single clue to help her answer that question. It was quite the conundrum. And even worse, things being what they were, she was not entirely sure he would ever get the answer to that question. It was the first wound that had been inflicted on his heart, the wound that had been there the longest, the one that had been permitted to fester for centuries. It was easy to see why he was hurting so much, and might always feel damaged.

She didn't know the answer to his question, so instead, she moved forward, closer to his hunched form and placed her hand timidly over his own. When he didn't pull it away, she allowed her other hand to move up his spine and over the expanse of his back. When he didn't object to that, she placed her head against his shoulder, or the arm just below. He didn't say anything, didn't respond, but slowly she felt him begin the process of unwinding, of muscles that had been so tense the skin was white begin to ease and allow blood to flow again. She'd forgotten they had this ability with one another. She'd forgotten that just because she couldn't fix things, sometimes she could make them better. So long as they dared to let their own magic work between them.

"Rumple…" He followed her lead, allowing her to manipulate him into standing and facing her once more before finally placing her hands on his cheeks and letting that warmth circulate through them both. "If she had stayed you wouldn't be who you are today."

"And suddenly you are convinced that's a good thing."

"Yes," she sighed without hesitation. "Rumple, if she had stayed you wouldn't be here today, none of us would. You might not have had Bae. The Evil Queen would never have cast her curse, Emma wouldn't be who she is, and I'd be back in my Kingdom married to Gaston with four children by now, a smile on my face but dead inside from years of waiting for a freedom that never came.

"What she did to you is awful but it hasn't owned you. You have been your own man-"

"A beast-"

"Your own man!" she insisted before he could finish his thought. Thinking like that was no good in this situation. "Don't let her own you now! You're-"

She felt her fingers tighten in possession but didn't speak the words that came to her mind. She had been lucky enough to catch herself before she could, but it made a knot swell up in her throat instead. It had been a long time since she'd had this talk with him, since she'd had to tell him that he was hers or wanted to claim him for herself instead of letting Dark magic or the Evil Queen do it. She wanted it to be that way again, truly she did, but she wasn't sure that she was prepared to commit to it like this, with her heart pounding and tears welling up in her eyes. Her heart always said yes, but her mind was still hesitant. She wasn't ready to say those words yet. But she was prepared to let out another truth that she'd long since thought dead in its place, one she was still sure of and always had been.

"You are a good man Rumpelstiltskin, and she has had no part of that. Don't let her have a part of you now by giving into what she wants!" she insisted through gritted teeth. Her jaw was set, she was ready to fight because what she held between her hands right now was all that she had left and all that was keeping her held together. If he gave into temptation and went to the Black Fairy with her son, she may as well be dead.

"You still think I could be good?" he questioned sadly. "After everything I've done?"

"I always have," she insisted. "I've seen you. All of you. I've seen the monster kept chained at bay and I've seen him permitted off his leash causing mindless terror. I've seen a good man who loves his son and his wife, a hero who has tried and succeeded in doing what was right, and a smart but scared spinner and pawnbroker who has made mistakes. You are all of those just as I am both myself and Lacey. I've made mistakes, and you still call me good. You can be the Dark One and a good man! You just have to try."

"What if I don't know how to try, Belle? What if I've spent so much time running and scheming that I've forgotten how?"

"You stay with me. That's how you try and keep trying. You stay here, by my side! Because if I lose you now, then I'd have nothing and no one. Do not give into her Rumple, no matter what it takes. For your son and me, but especially for you."

Suddenly he seemed to come to life once more, taking a breath that inflated his chest and made him stand up straight again. He matched her, placing one of his hands at the side of her neck and looking her over. What a sight she must have looked, her eyes had watered significantly since they'd started this conversation and as they stared at one another, eyes locked in a steady gaze, she swallowed nervously because she was aware of the temptation she felt to close the gap between them. She wasn't sure if she wanted to kiss him or not. She wasn't sure if he would or not, and so she was helpless to do anything but wait anxiously to see what he would do.

She broke into a nervous sweat when she felt pressure from the hand at her neck to step closer but didn't fight it. At the last second the pressure didn't draw her lips up to his, and she merely felt a gentle kiss to her forehead before he held her against his body, one arm at her waist the other tight around her shoulders anchoring her once more to her husband and the only thing she was suddenly sure about in this world.

"I won't let you down, Belle, not again," he whispered as they stood there. "We will free our son from her, I promise you. No matter what it takes."

* * *

 **See, I promised you that even though we were into the third section, we were still going to see those lovely little Rumbelle Moments from the second section come out. I love this chapter. I like writing Rumple as vulnerable and getting the opportunity to see how much his past still effects him. I also liked the fact that they work off each other now in a way they weren't before. It'll be mentioned in the next chapter, but it's a matter of he's keeping himself together to keep her together and she's keeping herself together to keep him together. They're supporting each other again. It's been a while since we saw that, yeah? Also, hey...glimpse into Rumple's past! I'm getting super excited to present Chronicles to you, especially knowing where all that beautiful information fits in.**

 **Thank you to Grace5231973, Fox24, Rumbellefan, and Paintbrush123 for your reviews. Super appreciated. I'm excited to read what you think about this chapter. I'm hoping you'll like it as much as I do and think this little glimpse into their relationship is acceptable. Peace and Happy Reading.**


	42. A Show of Good Faith

They had switched roles so quickly that if she didn't have to be strong now, it would have knocked her off balance. When they'd entered the shop this morning, she'd been relying on him. After his mother arrived, he'd been dependent upon her. And now they found themselves in an awkward position as they both had decided not to be strong for their sakes but for one another. His mother was in town, and if she wasn't strong, he wouldn't be able to resist her and stay away. Their son was helping one of the worst people she could ever imagine, and if he wasn't strong, then she wouldn't last two seconds before crumpling into nothingness. So they hung on, for the sake of each other they moved forward aware of the jobs they had to do. And somehow she was happy to find they created a warm and safe bubble around themselves that wasn't exclusive to the pawn shop.

Since they'd obviously missed their lunch they forced themselves to Granny's for an early dinner. They walked silently down the sidewalk, her hand wrapped around the crook of his arm, huddled in their coats as the temperature began to drop and she smelled snow in the air. It was the coat that triggered her memory, of another cold day that she'd been wearing layers like this to keep the chill away, and that was when she shivered for a completely different reason.

"I never did apologize for what happened that day at the well," she muttered as they walked forward. "I shouldn't have left you like I did or said what I meant to say that way. I was scared, and confused, and…it was just too much."

"Well…I never apologized for what I attempted with the Sorcerer's Hat, or not telling you about what happened with Zelena when you asked," he replied simply as they walked through the gate.

And that was that. Unspoken, unexplained, she knew that was the end of either of those conflicts. Sooner than she ever would have thought they would be, they were both forgiven and what lay ahead were two teas and two burgers with extra pickles, which she allowed him to pick off her own as always and eat himself. Being this settled after what had happened only hours earlier didn't seem possible, and yet there they were.

It was dark outside when they returned to the shop, and both their cheeks were rosy from the cold. But as he took their coats to hang them up she brought the books that she'd been reading in the back out and asked him to find the passage he'd read that made him think the dragon egg might work. He found it immediately, a small line at the end of a paragraph on magical ailments, not curses. _"If all else fails to bring about consciousness, the tonic of an unhatched dragon egg can almost always be relied upon."_

"You think it's enough to wake her?"

"I think it's worth looking into."

She nodded looking it over. It was the only thing they had so far. It wasn't much but at the very least it would give them something to do. "Okay, we should start with-"

The bell on the front of the shop rang and both of them looked up expecting to find danger. Instead, all that met them was a former danger that didn't even make her flinch in the midst of what they were experiencing now.

"Regina…" she breathed as she stepped up to the counter. She felt like it had been a long time since she'd last seen her. Her Majesty had done a good job of keeping her distance through their difficult relationship and that meant that she'd seen little of her in the last month or so. They'd worked together to attempt to solve the curse The Evil Queen had placed over David and Snow, Regina had been in the car when they were all summoned to the convent on the day Gideon was born, and she'd seen her again the night he had faced Emma, the night that…the night she thought she'd seen Robin.

"Well you look like you've just seen a ghost," Regina commented standing before her.

She wasn't entirely sure she hadn't. The memory was sudden but clear. "No, it's just…I was remembering the last time I saw you and…it sounds crazy but…that night with Gideon and Emma…I thought I saw you with Robin."

Regina sighed. "You did…and you didn't…it's a long story and there's not enough time for it now."

"Oh?" she questioned. That didn't just sound like a long story it sounded like a good story. As much as she only tolerated Regina after all that had happened between them suddenly she desperately wanted to know it, especially if it concerned her friend that she was fairly sure was buried in the cemetery right now. Now of course she wasn't sure. What could possibly leave them with no time for that?

"I figured out how to break the curse," Regina went on. "The one we were working on, the one you helped me with."

"The Sleeping Curse the Evil Queen put on Snow and David?"

"Yes, but of course you rightly discovered it's not really a Sleeping Curse. Just a curse of sleep."

"And you've figured out how to break it? How to wake them both up?" Yes, that would certainly distract from a story all about and not about Robin…but while weeks ago it was her hope the pair would wake soon, suddenly the thought sent a jolt of distress through her. Snow and David awake at the same time. Both of them together. They both had expressed interest in wanting her child dead, one had already tried and would have succeeded if it weren't for Gideon's magic. She'd been doing fine taking on one of them at a time but she wasn't sure she was prepared to deal with both of them awake now.

Regina finally took her eyes off of her and withdrew from her pocket a small silver flask like the kind she'd seen men carry whiskey in. She unscrewed the top and handed it not to her but to Rumpelstiltskin who asked no questions but simply peered inside, then swirled whatever liquid was in it and sniffed.

"Recognize it?"

"What's in it perhaps but it's not a concoction I know as a recognized potion."

"That's because it's not," Regina commented holding her hand out for the flask. She shrugged as he handed it back and she sealed it again. "Figured it was worth a shot though…this is what the Evil Queen used to curse Snow and David. Earlier today I attempted to wake them both up with a different potion. That potion failed, but along the way, I was lucky enough to get a piece of the curse itself and refine it into liquid form. This is a sleeping curse, just not the one we're accustomed to seeing. It's a portion of the one inside David and Snow, not a copy, a piece of the curse itself."

"And…" Rumple prompted, obviously growing board with story time.

"And I need to dilute it's concentrated form."

Rumple gave a snort of amusement. "So that's why you are here. You do understand that spell is what they call here a catch 22."

"Unless…more than one person drinks it."

His smirk of amusement became a fully-fledged smile. "So…it would seem you've discovered the loophole so many villains like yourself have taken advantage of."

"I had a good teacher."

Her stomach turned considerably at their conversation. She was aware of what had passed between Rumple and the Evil Queen. Regina knew the history, she knew they'd been together, but standing here and watching the banter back and forth was like being forced to watch it all over again and that spark of jealousy was what made her intercede. It hadn't gone far, he'd told her that and she believed it. But that didn't mean she wanted reminders of how far it had gone. She'd have said anything to make it stop.

"Can someone tell me what's happening?" she asked looking between the two of them and purposely taking a step forward to bump into her husband's arm, a small reminder that she was still in the room. Instead of words, she received action. Rumple turned to the safe behind him and from deep within it collected a small vile of amber liquid.

"This bottle contains one of the most tricky potions known to man or wizard from our realm…'The Villain's Plague.'"

Her eyes widened as she looked at it. "It's a plague!"

"Not exactly…" Regina corrected looking it over, that's just how it was used. And today it gets its opportunity to be a heroes cure."

"This potion as the ability to bind with powerful curses and dilute them, make them less powerful even if the curse is already enacted," Rumple went on ignoring her. "But that also means it effects more people. The problem lay in it's very creation, when the wizard working on it used an ingredient necessary to the binding that must be disposed of all at once leaving not a drop left. Otherwise it's useless."

A catch 22…as she thought it through she began to understand what they were talking about. The potion could dilute a curse to make it less powerful but it had to be taken all at once. The catch 22 was that if a person was alone and had to drink it by themselves then this potion would do very little good, but if others participated, if others took on the curse it would effect them all but not be as strong.

"That's why in time it came to be called the 'The Villains Plague'," Rumple finished. "Often times it was attached to a curse that would cause death and once distributed to a village or an army it caused weakness and illness, just enough to bring one's enemies to their knees before attack so that it was easier to conquer a kingdom or infect them with something far worse without fight."

"That's awful."

"Yes, but in this case, it is exactly what we need," Regina assured eyeing it. "Emma is out right now rallying everyone they can find to meet me in my office. If I split this curse between ten of us, we may be asleep for a few hours but eventually, it should wear off. The more people I have and we might only be asleep for minutes."

Fascinating. Truly fascinating, though it did sound very risky. Going to sleep at a time like this…it would leave many people vulnerable. Was this really-

"You should come," Regina suggested, unexpectedly interrupting her thoughts. "I know things have been less than ideal between you and the Charmings lately-"

"Things have been a little worse than less than ideal," she corrected. "They are trying to kill my son."

Regina sighed. "Yes, but…he did come here to kill Emma first."

She shook her head tired of that same old argument. Who struck who first, that was playground justice, nothing but childish arguing, when had it ever applied to anyone in Storybrooke other than her son?

"Look, I'm not saying it's right or wrong but…put yourself in their shoes. If it was Gideon and Emma came to kill him-"

"It is," she insisted before Regina could finish. Right now, she and Snow had declared war, and she had no doubt that if they found her son out there, they would act first and think later. That was what their attitude suggested. The only ones trying to help everyone, to save Gideon and make sure he didn't kill Emma were her and her husband. "I'm still hoping that we can stop all of this so that no one has to die, least of all our children. They don't want to listen to me."

"Coming and doing this might be a good show of faith…" Regina urged.

The statement gave her pause for a moment. She was angry, but that didn't mean that she couldn't want things to be different at the same time. After all that they'd all gone through together she desperately wanted them to fight together against the Black Fairy and for Gideon but…she wasn't sure that this was the way to do it. She glanced over at Rumple, attempting to gauge his reaction but it was nothing but indifference.

"It's your decision" was all he said.

Up to her, to put in a show of good faith…that was ultimately what made her shake her head. If she went nothing would change, she would be saying to them the same thing that she'd always said, she wanted both their children alive at the end of this. She wasn't sure it would have that effect on them though, and she had to consider how it would look to Gideon. If he found out that she'd gone to help the people who were trying to slaughter him...she couldn't see how he'd ever want to come to them over the Black Fairy then. She couldn't risk making him feel betrayed right now. He'd been betrayed by too many including her when he was only minutes old. She couldn't let it happen again.

"I can't," she finally answered. "And it's not to wish them evil it's just…my son needs me. And it's clear that no one else has his interest at heart except for us. I need to stay here, for him."

Regina nodded her head, unsurprised and understanding. She'd expected that answer. "For the little it's worth, I will try to see what I can do to talk to them, to help them see reason. If the Black Fairy really is here-"

"She is," Belle insisted. "We saw her just this morning."

"Then I think Gideon is quite possibly the least of our worries, and as the person who knows the most about her, the most valuable. If she's in town then…" Regina paused her gaze distant before she shifted her weight and stepped forward again, something important clearly at the forefront of her mind. "Henry started doing something strange with his author abilities. We went to see Isaac about it-"

"That cur?" Rumple growled.

"Well he's the only other author we know…he told us that it was the last chapter of the book."

"The Final Battle," he finished. Regina nodded.

"Who else would the Savior be up against than the very person that is responsible for us being here in the first place?" she questioned. There was a moment of silence before Regina looked at the vile of amber liquid still in his hands. "I have something for you…for the plague, I mean."

"Take it…" he half snarled practically pushing it across the glass display toward her. Something about the conversation had irked him and though she wasn't sure what it was she was ready for her to leave so that they could have a conversation of their own. "We have other things to worry about at the moment than deals and curses."

"No deal?" Regina piqued taking the vile and pocketing it. "Well that's a shame because I think you'll want what I would have traded for it."

"And what would that be?" he snapped.

"You've heard of Pixie Flowers."

"I trust you aren't referring to the ones that grow in Neverland and are responsible for Pixie Dust."

"No…I'm talking about the other kind, the ones that grow in the presence of great evil. Their dust reunites loved ones. Snow and Emma found some petals this morning and went in search of the flower."

"You thought that dust would wake the Charmings."

"It was a working theory…but Emma used it to bring Hook back instead."

"Killian's back," she muttered, her emotions tripping over themselves. How was it possible to experience hope, anger, happiness, jealousy, even relief in such a short period?

"As of an hour ago, yes." She was happy he was back, if only because that might help motivate Emma to help her son but at the same time…all the people who wanted to kill her son awake and in one place…it didn't exactly give her a warm feeling.

"That information hardly seems important to me," Rumple inserted.

"No, it's how Emma and Snow found the flower that you should be concerned with."

"I don't understand," she stated.

"While Emma and Snow were out in the woods your mother it seems was keeping watch over a grove of Pixie Flowers. Words and threats were exchanged and in the end she ordered Gideon to destroy all those pixie flowers."

"I expect he followed those orders," Rumple assumed emotionlessly.

"Almost…he left just the one behind that Emma used to bring her pirate back."

* * *

 **I like this chapter for a number of reasons. I like the morale between Regina, Rumple, and Belle. I like that despite an initial jealousy Belle goes on without being jealous of Regina and is obviously beginning to work on separating the two entities. I like the fact that this chapter is clearly meant to show that while her allegiance to good hasn't changed, her priorities have. In the past, if something like this came up Rumple and Belle would each be championing their causes. "Rumple, come help them with me." "Belle, don't go, we don't owe them anything." But in this Belle doesn't ask Rumple to come along and Rumple doesn't deny her the opportunity or discourage her, just says it is her choice. That's major. But I think what I like most about this chapter is the short two-line conversation they have at the very beginning because I do like the point it gets across. Time does not heal all wounds. Not all! But logically, if it doesn't heal all, then it does heal some. "I never said I was sorry for the well." "I never said I was sorry for 4A." That's it. That's the end of it. That's as far as their apologies get and yet the conflicts are gone. And we can debate why I feel like that is important all day, but the truth of it is that I think it's a very human thing to do. I think it really shows that in the grand scheme of things, with everything going on with Gideon right now, what happened then seems ridiculously small in comparison and if they focus on every little sin they've ever committed against each other they're never going to get into the present. I like that they both sort of make this conscious choice to say "these things happened, they sucked, we were awful...let's move on." I don't know if that's the recommended form of forgiveness, but I know that we as people do it all the time. If we didn't, you'd still be hung up on the fact that your parents lied to you because Santa Clause isn't real.**

 **Thank you, Fox24, Grace5231973, and Paintbrush123 for your reviews. It is much appreciated, and I can't wait to hear what you think of this chapter. With so much going on, I'm curious what your favorite aspect of it is. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	43. An Old Argument

"I just wish we knew what she was talking about. Why is it that villains are always so dramatic? Why do you always talk in riddles?!"

It was barely an hour after Regina had left their pawn shop, but it had taken them no time at all to decide it was time to go home. They were both tired, both suffering from a terrible feeling of hopelessness, and the text message from Regina that simply read "one last chance" was the final straw. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate the gesture, but she didn't want the temptation. And as for Gideon, as far as they were concerned the worst had already happened. They were on a time crunch, certainly, but neither of them could see the Charmings taking their first steps together to go after their son. And even if they did, looking for him for a week had wielded very few results, they had immediate concern for him where the Charmings lay. If Gideon wanted to stay hidden, he would stay hidden. The terror was in realizing he was probably in hiding with the Black Fairy. But they weren't prepared to go after her yet, not by a long shot. As much as it pained them, going home for a good nights sleep so they could start fresh the next day was the best thing they could do for their son. And talking about what Regina had said to him in exchange for the Villians Plague rather than what was happening across town or with Gideon, that was just the best thing they could do for their overextended minds.

"Villains speak in riddles because it's dramatic," he explained, holding her coat out for her and helping it over her shoulders.

"Yes, but why is the drama necessary?" she questioned back, grabbing her bag as well.

"Open for interpretation," he answered, his own thoughts clearly elsewhere. They shut off the lights in the back room, leaving the lump that was Mother Superior for the next day as they went into the front of the shop to go home. The light snow that had fallen earlier hadn't stuck to the road, but it was still cold and she expected it to be slippery. Taking their time on the roads was in their best interest. She blushed wondering if he would offer her his arm to hold onto on the way to the car.

"Personally, I think none of us were loved enough as children."

The comment he'd made was serious and probably true, sadly, but she could hear in his tone that he hadn't meant it in that way. He'd meant it to be a joke, something to lighten the dark mood they found themselves living in and remarkably enough she found herself smiling and glancing over wryly at him as they wandered to the door.

"So we're uh…we're making jokes again," she muttered.

"One hardly constitutes the use of the plural form. Belle!"

His smile vanished the moment he got to the door, and her own was quick to fade the moment he yelled out her name and pulled her away from the door.

"What? What is it?" she questioned looking around. When she followed his gaze, it was easy to see exactly what was wrong. Outside the pawn shop, standing on the corner by the library, was a figure. A woman, slender and tall. Though her face was hidden, her long black clothes were visible against the orange street light.

"She's waiting for us," she murmured watching her. There was no movement from her; she stood still as a statue in the cold air. "Is it a trap?" she questioned looking up at Rumple.

"I can't tell," he answered quietly.

It certainly seemed like the kind of thing that would be a trap. But why? It made very little sense. If she'd wanted to trap Rumple and take him with her, she could easily have done that earlier. If she wanted to take her…

She found herself looking around the woman at the dreadful thought, up and down the streets. If she wanted to take her, then the proper bait was missing.

"Where's Gideon?" It was as much a question as it was a warning. Something about all this wasn't right. It made her skin tingle.

"I'm not sure…but I'll be sure to ask her."

"Rumple no!" she exclaimed catching his hand before he placed in on the knob. "Don't go to her, that's what she wants."

"Well I can't just leave her out there," he argued. "If she's here, then it's for a reason, to tell us something or show us something and if I don't know what that is, we might regret it come morning."

She let out a heavy sigh as she stared at the figure across the street. Everything in her body rejected it, but her mind understood exactly what he'd just said. He was right. As much as she knew neither of them wanted anything to do with the Black Fairy, she was waiting there for a reason, and it couldn't be ignored. Besides, she very much so doubted that they could ignore it. If the Black Fairy wanted to talk and they avoided her now, chances were that she'd simply appear tonight as she slept or at dinner instead. There really was no hiding. Only an opportunity to face her directly. With warning or without...the choice was clear.

She nodded with determination and prepared as best she could. "I'm going with you."

"You'll stay here where it's safe," Rumple corrected immediately, grabbing her arm as though he expected her to charge right outside. In fairness, she might have.

"Rumple, it is _our_ son," she stressed, pulling her arm free from his grasp. No more of this one or the other. Either they were in this together, or they weren't!

"And she is _my_ mother with more power than I may have to protect you!" he growled, his temper already on the rise.

"And she's already proven that she won't use it!"

"Once, Belle. One time for reasons we can only speculate. There is no evidence she won't do it again. Please, she already has our son, don't give her you as well!" She opened her mouth to argue. "Belle, please!" he barked before he could say anything. "Trust me…"

It was the "please" that broke her. The "please" that triggered another memory in her mind when they'd been standing in almost these very spots having an argument similar in nature, an argument that she had almost entirely forgotten about because it was so long ago. It was the day he'd succeeded in finishing the memory potion that would carry him over the town line to find Baelfire. The shawl he'd needed had been safely locked away but when Hook attacked and she'd called him for help the pirate had broken in and stolen it. They'd argued then. She'd wanted so badly to go with him and find that shawl but agreed to stay behind in the end because of words like the ones he'd just used, because of a look like the one he'd just given her. He rarely begged, but he was begging now just as he was then, desperate not to lose her and their son.

Ancient words rang out in her mind as looked him over. _"I trust you'll do as I wish just as you trust me to be a better man."_ That's what he said then, when they'd had that mutual trust that had been slowly desecrated over the years. He hadn't said it now, but the "please" he'd used, begging her to trust him once more, he may as well have. That day had ended…complicated, just as anything in their relationship ended. But when she looked back on it, she had happy memories of the two of them because man and beast had been at battle and man had won. Because of Neal, partly, but because of her as well. She could feel the stupidity of it in her mind as she considered her options and came to a conclusion. "Stupid girl, bite me once shame on you, bite me twice shame on me"…but all the same, she stepped away from the door and uttered a single word.

"Go."

She wasn't happy about it, and her tone made that obvious, but she was standing aside to let him do what needed to be done for the safety of their son. She only hoped that as he did it he would understand that the way she'd trusted him didn't change. Just as she had that day she was relying on him to be a better man, to act intelligently, and in a way that would benefit their son and her and all of Storybrooke, and not the Black Fairy. Because while he was worried about losing her, she was worried about losing him and being alone again.

He sighed, looked her over as tears swarmed his eyes. "I'm sorry, Belle," he whispered.

Why was he apologizing?

She felt fear freeze its way into her heart and took in a breath to yell, but he'd already made the motion with his hand that sent her away.

* * *

 **Kind of a filler chapter? Sorry, this and the next two chapters were originally supposed to be one chapter but the more I wrote them the more I realized they just weren't going to fit together. The next two are really good strong chapters but this one took the brunt of being filler. You'll have to wait for what comes in the next couple of chapters for the rest of it. But hey, I tried to leave you some good things. This thought process that she goes through to let him go out there alone is actually good. In the chapters to come you'll see that it's really only a lead up to an even better and more important conversation. But it's still positive for Belle. And I've always had fun with leaving as many BatB references as I could throughout these fictions whether it be based on movie or a story and with the new BatB movie I got to make a reference to that! Did you catch it?**

 **Thank you Paintbrush123, Fox24, and Rumbellefan for your reviews! This is the last of the 6x17 chapters. The 6x18 chapters begin next. We're getting closer to the finish line, that much is for sure and I can't wait for it because I know that you are going to enjoy Moment's Grown, the next fiction...er...ficlet? It's short, but I think it's everything you've been waiting for since season three. Peace and Happy Reading.**


	44. A Rare Redo

She was furious. And fuming. She had been all night. When he'd apologized and sent her away from the Pawn Shop in a cloud of smoke, she expected to end up somewhere far away from the Black Fairy, but it was worse than that. She was practically right next to her. When the smoke cleared, she'd realized that she was in her library apartment yet again, but looking out the windows to try and see what was happening was useless. She could see the tops of their heads, but beyond that, she was at the wrong angle to really see much more than their heads bobbing up and down and the sway of their bodies as they spoke. And really, watching them talk would do her no good when what she wanted most of all was to hear what they were saying! But when she tried to open the windows, they wouldn't budge. That didn't bother her so much, on the account that she wasn't sure they could open. She'd never really tried before. So instead, to get a better view, she decided to go down to the library and-

"Ow!"

The door to the apartment the handle had flared with white-hot heat when she'd touched it, and she'd quickly snatched her hand away. Her eyes widened in anger. He hadn't…

But when she put her hand to it once more to try and open the door, she felt the heat and had to pull it away before both hands were scalded. He had.

"Rumpelstiltskin…" she growled at the realization. She was trapped.

The rest of the night passed by restlessly. After the Black Fairy vanished, she watched as Rumple walked back to the shop and half expected him to show up with an explanation in the apartment. But he never did. She fell asleep on the couch and woke a few hours later to find the lights in the shop still on. After trying the door again to no avail, she moved to the bedroom still fuming and fell asleep for another few hours only to wake up and find the lights in the shop off. She fell asleep again on the couch and woke at dawn to take a shower and dress again in Rapunzel's clothes. She threw what she'd worn into the washer and the next time she woke, when it was light, she moved it all into the dryer, had time to do her hair a bit more elaborately and then waited on the couch some more. But nothing happened. No one came, least of all Rumple. When she looked out the window, she could see the lights in the pawn shop were back on and she stared at her door angrily, wishing she had her bag on hand when she'd disappeared so that she could call him. With a sigh she made her way back toward the door and stared at it, willing it to open on its own, before curiosity, or maybe frustration, got the better of her. With a timid hand reached out to try and open it once more prepared to pull it back at the first flash of warm metal and…there was no heat! She'd pulled her hand back out of caution but she was sure!

She reached forward once more, this time taking a sturdier grip on the knob. No heat. The knob turned! The door opened!

She was free!

And putting the joy she felt at that aside, she was quick to march downstairs, out of her library, and across the street to the Pawn Shop.

"Rumpelstiltskin!" she called out as the bell chimed. "Rumpelstiltskin!"

She found him in the back, alongside the now uncovered body of the Blue Fairy. He was purposefully avoiding her eyes.

"You locked me in the apartment!" she accused outright.

"Only for your protection," he argued quickly.

"'My protection'?" she questioned crossing her arms over her chest. "Do you remember what happened the last time you locked me up 'for my protection'?"

"This time you were perfectly safe," he stated finally turning to face her. "The lock wouldn't have broken even with blood magic, neither the Black Fairy or Gideon could get to you, I couldn't even undo the spell once I'd set it. I had to set the magic to cease at dawn."

She could tell that in his mind that was all rationalized, that he felt he had learned from the experience of what happened on Hook's ship and that he thought he'd come up with a foolproof plan! She saw otherwise. It wasn't about the lock!

"And what if Gideon had needed me? What if you had needed me? What if there was a fire and I couldn't get out?"

"There wasn't, was there."

She snorted at that comment at the simplicity of it and felt her fist ball up in anger as it stretched through her chest. Always him. She was the world's calmest most sensible person in the world until he came along and she had the urge to hit him with something hoping it would knock some sense into him! She had a mind to do that right now. To walk up and slap him, because he clearly hadn't learned anything from the last time this had happened, and then storm out of this shop because she was sick of this happening over and over again, time after time!

But what had that accomplished last time?

Last time he'd done this, locked her on Hook's ship, she'd been furious, and they'd parted ways, not perhaps for good as she'd meant, but in a way that had sealed the fate of their son. This made her angry, it was a set back in their partnership as far as she was concerned, but even she could see that with the way things had been going storming out of this room would be the solution to nothing. It wouldn't help either of them get Gideon back, just make them angry at each other. But that didn't mean that she had to sit here with him and ignore what he'd done! That wasn't bound to solve anything either! There had to be a middle ground!

She took a deep breath, allowing space to grow in her chest for the heat she felt to cool so that she could talk not like a crazed angry person, but rather like a human being. They could get through this if they only talked about it. Rationally.

"You can't keep locking me up, Rumple," she finally stated. Her words weren't exactly sweet, but she was proud that she couldn't hear the fire in her voice anymore. Anger and tension were certainly there. But at least she wasn't yelling. "You have to let me help you."

"I have been," he answered. "But until I could make certain conclusions that was the safest thing I could think to do with you. Perhaps it escaped your observations, but in my mother's vision of her perfect future you are not included."

No, she hadn't, and they were going to talk about that in a moment but she wasn't going to let him distract her from what he'd said and what he'd done.

"'Think to do with me'?" she repeated, hoping he might hear exactly what they sounded like. No, this certainly was not about the lock. "You never thought of asking me, you just put me in a glass case like an object or trophy."

"If I had asked would you have gone?"

"Yes," she breathed without hesitation. She'd already been standing aside, allowing him to go out there to greet her on his own as he'd wanted to! How would asking her to go to the library apartment to wait have been any different?!

"Not without a fight," he corrected, shaking his head. Obviously, he didn't believe her. And...well, he wasn't wrong, but she didn't think he was right either. Thinking through it, would she have gone easily? No, probably not, but if he'd explained himself…

"If you told me why it was necessary I would have gone, I'm a reasonable person Rumple, if you would talk to me you'd find I understand logic." If he'd taken the time and said all that to her last night, then she would have given in because she needed to be alive to help Gideon.

"Why have the fight when I already know the outcome?"

"Because we'll just end up having it anyway!" she shouted. "Clearly we had this conversation in your head last night before you sent me away and now we're having it again. It would save us both the time if we could just fight about it the first time and maybe, if you didn't make assumptions, you'd be surprised at the outcome because clearly what you thought would happen, wasn't what would have happened. But now you'll never know."

His face was hard and set. He hadn't liked what he'd done and that counted for something, but she could also see that he wasn't convinced it was the wrong thing either. That alone opened the door for it to happen again.

"You told me a week ago that I had to give a little trust to gain more of it, that you couldn't earn what I wasn't willing to give you. This is the same thing, Rumple. No more glass cases. No more, Rumple!" she screamed when he opened his mouth to argue. Because this was something she wasn't willing to compromise on. "If you are that scared that something will happen to me, then I belong with you."

"Belle-"

"I'm coming with you, Rumple! That's it. If it's dangerous, tell me so I can make up my own mind."

"It's making up your own mind that scares me the most," he muttered quietly, glancing away from her.

The words were beautiful to her. They weren't mean or cruel, they were just truthful, a true fear. A fear she'd always suspected, admittedly, but not one he'd ever confessed to her. It was one thing to keep it to himself it was something entirely different to admit it to her. That was groundbreaking. She sighed with relief and finally let her arms fall to her side as she came around the foot of the cot to stand beside him and took his hand in her own.

"The safest I have ever felt is always with you," she admitted cautiously. Her mouth was dry with fear even as she said the words for she knew that saying those words gave him a power back that she wasn't sure she was ready to return. But it seemed right. It seemed good, despite what her mind told her. A confession for a confession. A truth for a truth. That was fair enough. "No matter how far the danger has been, even if it's in another realm, I only feel secure when you are with me, even if we're at war. If it's dangerous, I trust I will be safe by your side because I know you'd never let anything happen to me. Not at another's hands anyway."

"Belle…I have not, nor will I ever lock you away like you seem to think I have."

Well, that was something. It was as close to an apology as she was ever likely to get. It was missing words, several phrases actually to make it perfect. But she had the choice either to press him for that perfection or take it for the promise it was. The first option had rarely worked well with him, the second on the other hand…

"'Have not'…" she repeated dropping his hand and looking over the body of Mother Superior, preparing to shift her focus. "Perhaps you've forgotten how we met."

He let out a small snort. "You weren't exactly a typical prisoner."

"Maybe not in the end."

"Not ever!" he scoffed. "If you'd run away we both know I wouldn't have come after you."

She felt the corners of her mouth curl upwards at that thought. She dared to look over at him and then take a step closer so that he was either forced to look down at her or take a step away from her. He looked down.

"If Regina hadn't told you I was dead, you would have come after me eventually…we both know that."

For a few heartbeats there was silence between them, then he sighed and took a step backward without saying another word. Her smirk grew into a smile. It was as close to an admission of truth that she would get.

* * *

 **Oh, look, another redo! And really not just "a redo" this one is "the redo" in my mind. This, obviously, is supposed to harken back to after she'd been imprisoned on The Jolly Roger. I think I've stated before that I needed for them to come to terms with that event. Desperately needed. And so I gave them the opportunity because Rumple sending Belle away because he thinks she's in trouble is totally in canon with his character. And her disliking it, is completely in canon with her character. The only difference in this situation is that now their son binds them together so that they have to learn from past experiences and work through it. Now Rumple can't say "I'm right" and dramatically walk away and Belle can't scream "you're wrong" and yell at him as he walks away. If they want to have any hope that they're going to save their son, they have to work it out.** **And I like to think they do, if only because they confess what bothers them about it. For that reason alone, I really like this chapter, even if it is short.**

 **Big thank yous to all who left me reviews on the last chapter, Grace5231973, Fox24, Rumbellefan, and Paintbrush123. I'm glad you enjoyed it, no matter how short it might have been. Welcome to 6x18! 6x18/6x19 were really good meaty episodes for Rumple and Belle so sit back and relax because we're going to be here for a while. The consolation prize? I really like this group of chapters. Everything is kind of coming to a head and finally, everyone is working together and they all just fit together really nicely. I hope that you'll enjoy them! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	45. Bad News Before Good

Their conversation put aside, she felt it best to continue on without acknowledging it. There was no use after all in asking for truth, she'd just have to wait for the next opportunity to see what he'd do. If he'd send her away and put her behind a glass case, or if he'd allow her to stay with him or out free in the world. That answer would have to wait. Gideon could not.

"You uncovered Blue," she observed quietly as they stared down at her body.

"I spent the night doing research and I wanted to look her over for confirmation of what I found."

She knit her brows together as she looked up at him both hopefully and fearfully. That could go either way. "What did you find?"

Rumple nodded at the Fairy. "Put your hands to her neck, check her pulse, tell me what you find."

She was fairly sure that since she wasn't breathing she didn't need to check to know what she'd find, but out of consideration for their last conversation she did as he asked anyway. The skin was smooth and dry, perhaps a bit waxy feeling but otherwise normal. Except for what she felt beneath her fingers.

"Nothing," she answered.

"Exactly," he began. "In researching the Dragon Egg remedy I found a problem. The Dragon Egg is used to wake magical beings from sleep but-"

"Blue isn't sleeping."

"No…Fairy's are made from pure magic that cannot be destroyed, they're born of children's laughter and exist so long as people believe in them, one person in all the realms is enough."

"In other words, once they exist they can't unexist, well…unless what I read about the Fairy wand is true."

"Precisely. Without her magic, the Blue Fairy cannot die, but she also cannot be woken up. She's in a stasis, similar to the coma I found myself in after the Dark Curse was removed only this isn't affecting her body or her soul. She's just frozen like this, and will be until she gets her magic back or a dose of extreme Light Magic that might revive her enough to charge herself up again, similar to a car battery."

She let out a snort at that thought. Mother Superior would love being compared to a car battery…

But, while the magic that he was explaining to her made sense something about the situation did not.

"Rumple you…you spent all night researching this?"

"I went home in the wee hours of the morning to change and exchange a few books, but otherwise yes."

No. That certainly didn't make sense. He talked to his mother then he came over here to research the Blue Fairy…it just didn't seem right.

"Well…what about the Black Fairy? What did she want with you?"

"Belle…" she watched as his face became grave and he took a deep breath, as if he was putting off telling her something. He looked the way Rapunzel had when she'd told her Robin Hood had died and instantly her stomach began to knot at the thought. Should she be panicking?

"Rumple…" she pressed.

"Gideon isn't what he appears to be," he finally stated carefully. Those words didn't exactly give her a lot of hope.

"What is that suppose to mean?" she asked. "He's…he's not real? He's still back in her realm?"

"No, no, none of those things."

"Then what?!"

He sighed. "She has his heart, Belle. She told me last night."

She stared at him for what felt like several minutes trying to understand exactly what he'd just said to her, the words felt so foreign and unexpected.

"She has his heart," she repeated, neither asking a question or making a statement. "She just told you this?" It seemed so unlike that fairy to divulge anything unless it was part of some plan or Rumple had somehow pushed it out of her! What was the purpose in telling him?

"I assumed. I suspected yesterday after Regina told us about the flower. Leaving one behind is an act of rebellion against her, but it didn't make sense because if he wanted to rebel or didn't believe in her plan then he should hardly still be at her side when we could protect him from her. I thought it could be fear but then I remembered my mother's words, her confidence when she stated Gideon wouldn't leave her. He's not going to leave her and come to us because he can't. She has his heart and when I confronted her with my suspicions, the truth became obvious.

"I'm sorry Belle. I should have told you earlier in the day that I suspected it, but I didn't want to risk getting your hopes up if it came to nothing. Not that this is good. Our son's heart is in the hands of the woman who cares nothing for it. He's a pawn in this game of chess and I fear what she'll sacrifice in her efforts to win the game."

He was rambling. She was fading in and out. Catching only every other word as she fought to understand it all perfectly and make sure she hadn't missed anything.

"The Black Fairy has Gideon's heart?" she repeated once more. She was feeling such an odd mix of regret and sadness and fear but then, there was also something else that accompanied the news, an emotion she would never have expected but felt all the same. Happiness.

"I knew it!" she finally exclaimed. "I knew our son couldn't do those things; I knew he wasn't evil!" In her excitement, she launched herself into his arms and felt a wave of relief wash over her that she hadn't felt for a very long time. Gideon truly was a victim, in every way! Regina had to have sensed this or else she wouldn't have told Rumple; she could tell the others what was happening, she could help them! The others would have to see now; they would! He was someone caught up in something he didn't want to be involved in, and against his will. It was awful but salvageable. If she had a dollar for every time they'd worked around stolen hearts…

She felt wonderful, but why wasn't she feeling the same relief from Rumpelstiltskin, this news should make him just as happy as it made her.

"You know, this means he can be saved," she smiled pushing herself out of his arms. His expression told her that she'd been right. He was happy, she could see it there, but all at once they were back to their old roles, she was optimistic and he was ever the pessimist.

"The Blue Fairy is even older than me Belle," he explained. "She knew my mother before she became evil."

"Which means that Blue could have the answer to stopping her," she confirmed, returning to what they'd suspected for a long while now and been working toward. She didn't see the hang up on the Blue Fairy when they'd just discovered something wonderful.

"And I played right into my mother's hands and took her magic, now we can't wake her, which means if she does know anything, right now she's useless."

"Yeah but…" Was that what this was about? He was worried that taking the Blue Fairy's magic was his mother's idea, manipulating him through Gideon? Or was it the other little bit. She wasn't sure where this was coming from. If this was part of their conversation that night or if he'd known that the Blue Fairy had known the Black Fairy when she was only Fiona and Blue had simply neglected to tell her. But if what he was saying was true, and she trusted it was, that put the Blue Fairy into a different kind of danger. She was just as vulnerable as he was. They had to figure out a way to wake her. Soon. Having the Black Fairy here was dangerous for her, especially if she was unconcious to fight back. No more chasing after dragon's eggs.

She reached out and grabbed his arm, giving it a small encouraging squeeze. He'd done something good for their son with his dark magic. The Black Fairy didn't change that.

"You couldn't have known she was pulling all the strings, Rumple," she assured him. "You…did what you had to, to protect Gideon." Dark Magic for Light Magic. That was something to hold onto. She had to ensure he remembered that. "Now we just have to find a way to get Blue out of her coma."

"Well the first step is returning her magic, her heart remains frozen till then," he commented, squeezing her elbow as he moved away from her. Right. The Dragon Egg couldn't work unless she had a beating heart. Which wouldn't happen until she had magic again. Magic had created her and so without it she was in a permanent form of stasis. They had to get her magic back.

"Well…any idea how?" she questioned looking over at him. He was gathering his coat and already heading for the door. There was very little doubt in her mind that he had an idea, whether or not it would be worth something…she couldn't be sure. And she had a feeling neither could he.

"No, and I'm afraid I've exhausted all our books here," he explained putting his coat on. "I'm going to go to the Sorcerer's Mansion, see what I can find."

She nodded. "Okay." She assumed it was a good plan, he seemed to think it was and it sounded as if it was. In her time she'd only ever known what they knew as "The Sorcerer's Mansion" as an abandoned place she'd spent her honeymoon, but clearly it was more. And she would ask about that story just as soon as Gideon was safe at home with them.

"Good luck," she called after him, as he headed out. He didn't even offer to take her along. The reason seemed obvious. She was needed here, to look after Mother Superior. And if the Black Fairy was targeting him, then she'd be safer without him around.

But heaven help him if she tried to walk out that door and found it locked.

* * *

 **These chapters divided out weird. I know it, you know it, I'm sorry for it, but really I think it would have been more awkward to put them all together. The good thing is that from here on it's pretty much a clean break. This is a good chapter to get us from the Black Fairy part of this episode into Belle the babysitter part of the episode. Um...so...this last part of the chapter, here is the thing. Yes, there are still things that Belle does not know. Some of them, like the Author Pen she is missing details from, other's like the Sorcerer's Mansion the information is just missing. On the one hand, I'm sorry for this, truly I am, but I still sleep well at night knowing that I truly have tried to incorporate those facts in and they just haven't come together. For things like the Sorcerer's Mansion, there hasn't been a good time to introduce all that simply because I don't even think the rest of Storybrooke knows what it is. We really never have gotten a history on it, so other than an abandoned Mansion with a bunch of empty books and the place that Anna went home, Rumple found the hat, and now where Gideon tried to kill Emma...no one really knows what it is unless they've had a town meeting. Now, obviously Rumple knows it's more than it seems and I imagine he'll tell her what he knows in the future, but for now not only is "oh it's that place where..." the place Belle's knowledge dies, it's the place where a lot of the characters knowledge of it dies. As far as the Author Pen goes...I answered a question about this not to long ago. Belle knows Henry is the Author, she knows that their stories are supposedly Storybooks Henry is responsible for and Isaac was the last author...but it's not written into a chapter because I never found the opportunity to include the information. I imagine it was something she learned while they were all sitting around in Camelot and that the conversation consisted of a few lines because there was a lot more going on and they didn't need to worry about it. I know it's irritating to have her in the dark on some of these things and to have to assume certain things (how do you think I feel trying to keep track of it all), but I like it. I like that she doesn't know everything simply because we as people don't know everything, especially everything about our friend's lives that don't necessarily affect us. The truth is that Henry being the author really doesn't effect Belle until Moments Grown and so there is no need to bring it up until then. It will come up then, and Rumple will explain what he knows to her, but it's such a little thing by then that I believe it's covered in a sentence like "Rumple explained to her what he knew". I just can't have her knowing everything. It's unrealistic. And I'm always looking for smooth natural ways for her to have these conversations. The last thing I want is for Snow to come into the shop and say "Hey have you heard about the Sorcerer's Mansion, let me tell you about it and then leave for no apparent reason."**

 **Thank you, thank you, thank you to Grace5231973, Fox24, and Rumbellefan for your reviews on the last chapter! Interesting remarks for that chapter, but ones that I expected. Opinions are good! We are all free to have them! Just so long as we don't tear others down with them! Peace and Happy Reading.**


	46. A Baby Shield

And so here she was. Rumple was off to the Sorcerer's Mansion, but that didn't mean that her job was done. She could stay and guard Blue but could also go back over to the library. With the Black Fairy in town, any bit of information could help her when it came to defense. Maybe there was a way to ward her off. Maybe there was a way to better hide Blue so that she was safer. Looking down at her emotionless face, heart quiet, lungs still…she had to do something that would help her.

With a sigh, she picked up a blanket near the foot of the cot and began to spread it over the nuns legs. She knew it's silly. Her heart wasn't beating she couldn't feel a thing like cold or warmth or comfort. But after what she'd done to her yesterday, hiding her beneath blankets and pillows like she was an ugly piece of furniture she felt the small gesture made up for it in some way. Asleep or not, dead or alive, she was still a person. Funerals respected bodies of the dead far more than she had treated her body yesterday, even if she did feel it was necessary.

She was just busy fitting the blanket to her when she heard the bell in the next room chime.

"Rumple?" she called, wondering what he had forgotten. Odd, he usually wasn't the forgetting type.

"No." Her heart began to race as she looked out into the main room, recognizing Zelena's voice. "It's me…I had to wait until he left," Zelena explained letting herself into their back room. She immediately backed away from her, the scars from what had happened with Gideon still fresh.

"Zelena!" She had words to say, scream at her really. But when she took a step forward to banish her from their shop, she realized that Zelena had enough common sense to bring the perfect shield with her in the pawn shop. Baby Robin. The child looked up at her with a wide drool filled smile and big eyes. Words died on her tongue as she stared at her. It was hard to yell at a woman who held a baby in her arms, especially if that baby had Zelena for a mother now because her friend was dead.

Zelena looked her over for a moment as if expecting the tongue lashing, but she watched as her eyes drifted over to the bed then broke into a wide smile and small giggle. She remembered only too late that she was supposed to keep people out of this room so they wouldn't discover the fairy.

"Well, what do we have here?" she questioned stepping closer to the bed. She too had discovered Mother Superior it seemed. "Is she…"

"N-no!" she quickly inserted, understanding exactly what she thought. It was exactly what she'd thought the first time she'd seen her too, but it was only half true. "H-her heart's stopped because her magic has gone," she explained. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew she probably shouldn't tell Zelena all this. But when baby Robin looked at her…she couldn't bear the thought of the baby thinking she was dead. Even for a second. Even if she knew she couldn't understand a concept like death. She'd learned from little Neal in the nursery that they still understood far more than people gave infants credit for.

"Rumple's taking care of it."

"Is he now? Well, I never liked her anyway, you're secret's safe with me."

"Okay, good to know," she laughed, it was the only thing she could do to keep herself calm and her heart beating in her own chest and not her throat. Rumple wasn't going to like this, secret safe or not and the last thing she needed was to add fire to their feud. As far as she was concerned, it was worth not yelling at the witch just to get her and her secret out of this shop and away from the Blue Fairy. But why she was here, in the shop, was another thing entirely. It couldn't be something that she wanted to do; she had to know she wasn't happy about what had happened with Gideon. That's why she'd brought Robin, or at least so she figured, to soften her up a bit when she asked for something. Zelena was smart enough to know that as long as the baby was here she wasn't going to speak her mind about where exactly her mother could put any request she was about to make of her…but that didn't mean she couldn't question.

"Ah…why are you here?"

"I need a favor. I was wondering if you could watch Robin for me."

She knew, somewhere in the back of her mind that her answer to that favor should be to show Zelena the door, especially after what happened with Gideon…but while she had that thought she felt herself smile as she looked over at the baby and said instead "Yeah! Yeah, of course!"

She stared at the baby in her arms, who was still looking at her with that sense of familiarity, as if she remembered her from when she'd been a newborn, and she'd brought her milk and held her in her arms. She suspected that because of the events surrounding her birth, and since Robin had gone away so quickly, she was the first one Robin had bonded with. And while there really was no love loss for Zelena after all that had happened, she had to admit she had a soft spot for this little one and the idea of turning her away now seemed an impossible feat.

"I'd be happy to," she smiled looking at the little girl, giving her that look that told her if she rocked her for only a few minutes she would probably fall asleep quickly. "I uh…I think we've got a bassinet we could use. Come on…"

Out in the front shop, she took a quick glance around and was happy to find the contraption that she herself had dug out of storage, cleaned, and placed on display for sale when Rumple had been thought to be dead what felt like ages ago. It was still clean, no cobwebs, and she figured that was just pure luck. She brought it a bit closer and Zelena stepped forward to place her daughter inside. "Don't worry darling, mommy won't be gone long…"

She left the witch to say her good-byes to her daughter and went into the back room. That bassinet, she swore, there was a pair of legs that went with it that she could use so she wouldn't have to sit her on the ground. It took her a second to locate them there in the back, but noticed when she pulled them out that the pin for one of the legs was loose. Yes, she vaguely remembered that was why she hadn't put them on the bassinet itself. She'd always intended to fix it, but with things going the way they were…

Robin would live. Legs for the bassinet or not she'd be fine if she just carried the basket around for a few hours. Especially if "won't be gone long" wasn't really "long".

"Zelena…how long did you say-"

But when she went back out into the front room she found it empty, the only sounds were from baby Robin gurgling happily in the corner where her mother had left her.

* * *

 **Yeah, so...I really did love those added scenes for 6x11. The only problem with them? They made this scene seem totally and completely out of context. She sounds as if they never happened. And I hemmed and hawed at how to present that for a bit but then realized that the answers had already been kind of sort of unintentionally built into the story. For one, I had stated a number of chapters ago in the midst of all that, Belle was really more disappointed with David and Killian at that event than Zelena. It was a matter of her realizing that her trust had been in the two of them and she had made a mistake in believing Zelena would ever change her spots and expecting her to for her. Second, as I was thinking about this chapter, and watching it post deleted scene release, I had the thought of "why do you just tell Zelena to take her kid and get out?" That ended up being the answer for me. To Belle, Robin is more than just "a kid". She is someone that she loves and had time to bond with as she cared for her in her mother's absence. She might be angry at Zelena but she'd never feel that way toward Robin and she's gracious enough that as long as Zelena is with Robin, she'll never cross her. It's a small hiccup, I know, but I did my best with it. Not entirely pleased with the chapter, but I hope you'll see the logic in it all the same.**

 **Thank you Grace5231973, Fox24, and Paintbrush123 for your reviews on the last chapter! I do think from here on out you will be very pleased. In this fiction, the 6x18/6x19 storyline was my favorite to write! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	47. The Thing About Babies

Robin was both just as she remembered, and yet different in many ways as well. When she'd taken care of her the baby had only been a few days old, now she was a month old, bigger, happier, and far more drooly than she recalled her. She recognized the look of sleepiness in her eyes she hadn't forgotten that she liked to sleep on a full belly. Fortunately, when she first peered into the basket after Zelena left, she'd found there, tucked in between the folds of her blanket, a half full bottle of milk. She cradled the girl against her chest as she had a month ago, shocked to find that after only a month of growth, between all the blankets, she took up nearly her entire torso. Still, heavy as she was she managed to set the girl against one of her arms and feed her with the other. All the while she smiled down at her, all the while Robin watched her face, until, when she was nearly done, she watched her eyelids grow heavier and heavier, her tiny fist closed over one of the fingers closest to her on the bottle and she drifted off to sleep still suckling.

The bottle nearly at its end she'd plucked it from her mouth, rewrapped the child, and set her back in the little bassinet.

"Sleep well little girl, sleep well."

She knew there were things to do, books to discover and read, Rumple to catch up with…and yet she couldn't tear her gaze away from the little girl slumbering on the glass case. Was this what it would have been like? If things had gone according to plan? Would she bring Gideon over to the shop on her lunch breaks? Would he have slept in this bassinet? Would she have learned his habits and faces just as well as she knew little Robin's and even Neal's? She could only imagine the answer was yes. It stood to reason that if she could get to know someone else's child that well then she would have done the same with her own. She wondered if that was how it would have been his whole life, if traits he had as a baby would have continued throughout his life so that she would have recognized when he was unhappy at the age of five, angry at the age of fifteen, or even confused in his adulthood.

Adulthood…

She couldn't tell, but she felt sure that some of those signs would have made it to adulthood if Gideon had been with his parents, but now she wondered if any had survived. Kept in a cage, she wondered if her son had ever had any kind of love or nurturing the way Neal and Robin had now, if any of those traits had carried over. And then she realized she'd never know.

She wiped a tear away from her eye as she sighed and looked down at Robin once more. Though she'd never taken her eyes off of her mind had been so far gone she hadn't really seen the child until she returned to the shop and brought her back into focus, still sleeping, just as she had been a few moments ago.

"Sleep well," she whispered again, before wandering into the back of the shop.

What now? Robin was asleep, Blue was asleep…she supposed she could lock up the pawn shop and go over to the library to look for books, but looking through books required patience. She'd had patience just before Zelena had come in but after holding Robin for the last half hour she found her skin crawling as it begged for activity, impatient, and dissatisfied.

It was her old fall back, when she'd first arrived at Rumpelstiltskin's castle she'd never so much as brushed the dust on a bookshelf off with her hand, but the more she'd worked there, the more she'd come to love cleaning. It was a small easy victory, a good way to use a little bit of elbow grease and let go of the nervous tension she carried with her. The world may be a chaotic place, but cleaning was something she could control. The fact that after a few minutes of sweeping the floor gleamed, or that after a bit of polishing silver could glitter, or that after a good dusting the cabinets could shine was exhilarating. It was control in a world of chaos, and it was comforting to her.

For an hour she swept, dusted, and cleaned whatever she could get her hands on until she heard small gurgling coming from the bassinet. By the time she'd put the broom in her hands aside, the gurgling had transformed into loud unhappy cries.

"Oh hey!" she cooed with the infant picking her up out of the bassinet and holding her in her arms once more. "Hey, hey…" she bounced the little creature up and down as she shifted her, feeling nervously for wetness or tightness in her diaper. She checked the blanket but Zelena hadn't left her any diapers or wipes. If she needed to be changed she'd have to run down to the pharmacy to pick up what was necessary, but after a few moments of feeling she determined that while she was safe from the trip, the baby was still clearly unhappy about something. If it were Neal she'd read him a book, but she hadn't any children's books in the shop. In fact, there weren't many children's items at all except for a mobile and…

That was it.

"I know what will make it better," she whispered setting the screaming child back into the bassinet. "You just wait right here…"

Across the room there was a small collection of stuffed animals, most of them old and tattered, some of them downright terrifying, but there was one small fluffy one that looked almost new. It had been there when she'd taken the catalogue seven months ago and she'd been just as grateful then as she was now not to know the story behind why someone would sell such a thing in the pawn shop. Sad as it had made her, right now it made her unbelievably happy.

"Robin, look! Look! A new friend!" she waved the stuffed animal in front of the baby and slowly gained her attention. The kicking stopped, the crying stopped, she stared up at the beast, transfixed for a moment before reaching up and grabbing at it.

"There you go," she muttered pretending the animal was moving and placing its head on her cheek in the mimic of a kiss that made Robin smile. She took it from her hands and Belle was quick to grab a tissue to wipe away the residue of tears from her eyes and cheeks and under her nose.

"There now. This is called a giraffe! See all the spots? Giraffes live in Africa with elephants and crocodiles and even monkeys." She grabbed the animal again when she had free hands and danced him in front of the little girl once more. "They have long necks so that they can reach up high to the trees. How high can you reach?"

She laughed as Robin extended her hands once more toward the animal. She never knew she could be so entertained with a stuffed animal until this second. So enthralled she hadn't even noticed someone at the door until the bell rang, announcing the presence not of Zelena but rather Regina.

"Regina, hi!" she greeted cheerfully. How odd. She was very aware that things between them were not perfect at the moment, she was still angry about her for taking her heart what felt like an eternity ago. They worked well together when it was necessary but as far as friendship went the relationship was strained, but compared to the tension that she felt with other members of her family over Gideon at the moment, what she felt for Regina looked like a friendship to last decades. Besides, she had given Rumple the information that helped them determine the Black Fairy had Gideon's heart. And…it was difficult not to smile and be cheerful when Robin was so impressed with her toy.

"What uh…what can I help you with?" she questioned as the Mayor came into the room.

"Well I was putting together a locator spell when I realized I was out of items-"

The words she'd been about to finish died as her eyes landed on Robin laying in the bassinet on the case.

"Is that Robin?!" she shrieked stepping forward and looking down at the baby to confirm her suspicions.

"Yeah, Zelena asked me to watch her for a bit. Isn't she adorable?"

There was no doubt as to Robin's adorable nature, but it was impossible to tell from the look on her aunt's face. She looked horrified.

"Ah…is something wrong?"

She was confused. It was just Robin, and yet the irritation on her face was clear as day! She didn't understand what was happening but she had a sinking feeling in her gut that it wasn't good. Regina wasn't happy Robin was here and she had the feeling she knew why. It was something she didn't know. Suddenly she wondered exactly why Zelena had needed her to watch the baby, and where she was going.

"Not right now," Regina muttered looking her niece over. "But there's about to be." Regina turned quickly from her and headed for the door without ever telling her why exactly she'd come.

"Regina?" she cried out after her. "Regina! Wait what's…happening?" she tried to call after her but Regina was already nearly out the door.

"Just keep Robin safe, I'll talk to you later." The loud crack the door made when she left made Robin burst into tears all over again. Still confused she immediately went to the child and plucked her out of the bassinet in an attempt to comfort her.

"It's okay," she muttered breathlessly trying to bounce the child up and down to get her to stop crying. "It's okay, mummy's okay…I think."

* * *

 **Filler chapter. Obviously. There wasn't much I could do with all of this because taking care of babies is...well...rather boring in my mind. (Not a fan of anything under the age of three, personally.) But, that being said, I did try to incorporate what is to come in the future chapter where Belle tells Rumple she realized what she missed out with on Gideon. There will be a little bit of it in the next chapter as well.**

 **Thank you Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, and Rumbellefan for your reviews! I'm glad to hear that using the baby as the reason Belle pushed her conflict with Zelena aside was acceptable. Whew! That's a good feeling! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	48. A Less Than Happy Reunion

Little Robin was not as easy to calm this time as she had been when she woke up from her nap. Then, the crying had just been an instinct, but now the sound of the door slamming had started the baby and she could hear her heart beating frantically even through the blanket she kept over her for warmth. Getting her to stop wasn't just a matter of using a happy voice and waving a giraffe in front of her face, it was a matter of calming her down so that she forgot the sound she'd heard.

Little by little with every bounce and whispered word she felt the tears slow and her heartbeat reduce. In the end Robin was her own knight in shining armor, or at least her body was. She hiccupped suddenly toward the end of her tears, and with the jolt that came through her body, her eyes widened, she stopped crying, and she looked around wildly, looking for an explanation to what she felt. Then it happened again. She laughed at the expression of bewilderment on her face, and suspected that the sound of laughter helped to calm her. After a while she was able to lay her back in her bassinet with a smile on her face and hand her back the giraffe.

"Do you want to hear a story?" she whispered to the baby. "I don't have any here, but maybe we could make one together. There once was a girl named Robin who loved giraffes…"

The story worked, or else the sound of her voice did. Robin was quiet and stared up at her, listening intently and chewing on her giraffe's ear as she concocted a tale of Robin and her magical giraffe named Muff. She lost time making up that story; she told it even as she continued to sweep the floor, using the broom as a dancing partner, and the dustpan as a broken jewel. When she finally returned to Robin's side to retrieve the baby she'd come to a conclusion: she would have been a good mother. The conversation she'd had with Rapunzel in the library a few weeks ago came back very clearly to her and she remembered how her friend had assured her she'd be okay. That no one really knew how to be a parent it was just something they learned.

She wasn't entirely sure she believed that now. No one had ever taught her to do these things, and taking care of Robin these past few hours had certainly come easier to her than it had the first time she'd watched Neal. Was that because she was a mother now? Because she'd given birth and really just knew? Part of her thought that and when she finally picked Robin back up and dipped her up and down in her arms making her smile she knew that if given the chance with Gideon she would have done just as well if not better with him. At the very least she'd have been better than the Black Fairy.

Once again cradled against her chest, the baby was eager to reach out and grab at the stray, unkempt locks of her hair. She had tiny hands, but such a strong grip. It didn't make any sense how something so tiny could pull so hard on her hair, or make her smile this much. It was no wonder she kept thinking about Gideon as she stared down at her face. It would have been impossible not to think of him. Not as he was now, but as he was when he was born, how he could have been. Dressed in blue and wrapped in a blanket like this. Would he too have snuggled close to her chest? Would he have pulled her hair and smiled at her? What would the bond they'd have had created been like?

She dared to think further, just as she had only hours ago when she'd settled Robin down. What would life have been like if he'd never been at Hades' mercy? If Rumple had told her of the curse some other way? Would they be home now? Counting down the months until they held their own baby? Would they have put their hands over her belly and picked out furniture together? Thought of baby names? Would Gideon's name even be "Gideon"?!

That thought was enough of a shock she could barely fathom it. To her he was Gideon and no other name would have suited him. But still, he was what she'd made him, what he would have been if they'd done it together wasn't worth thinking about because it would never come to pass. But that didn't mean she didn't think about it.

"Hey, I'm back," Zelena sighed as the bell to the shop went off behind her. Her daydreaming interrupted she felt the bubble she'd been living in with Robin burst. If she was honest, she'd completely forgotten about Regina's arrival until this moment. She'd been too busy comforting the baby and telling her stories. But as it all came back to her, she issued a sigh of relief. Obviously what Regina feared, whatever that was, hadn't come to pass, or hadn't been what she thought it was…she may never know. But what mattered was that Zelena was back, though she loved the tiny infant she'd helped to sustain through her early days she was suddenly aware that Robin was not Gideon, she was not her mother, and it was time to give her back.

"Hey," she sighed. "How ah…how did your business go?" she questioned, doing what she could to draw out the minutes she had left with the baby as well as figure out what exactly had happened.

"Not as productive as I'd hoped but it doesn't matter anymore," Zelena muttered, her voice sad. Maybe Regina had gotten her way then. She wasn't sure what had happened, what Zelena's business actually was, maybe someday she'd ask, but now didn't seem the time, the look on Zelena's face made that entirely obvious.

"How was she?" Zelnea finally inquired looking to her daughter.

She felt her smile grow as she gazed back down at her. "She's ah…she's a sweetheart," she admitted cheerfully. "I'm happy to watch her any time!" The words were out of her mouth before she could even consider them, but she didn't have any urge to take them back even knowing what she'd tried to do to Gideon. She did adore baby Robin, just as she adored little Neal. And as far as Zelena went…no, she wasn't happy about what happened at the cabin with her son. In fact, she was downright furious about it, but when she looked at Zelena, she was surprised to find that she wasn't furious at her. Angry, certainly. But furious…those were emotions she was saving for David and Hook.

Why? She wasn't entirely sure, but if she had to guess it was because she was more to blame for that than Zelena was. She'd asked Zelena for help, knowing who she was and what she did, knowing he was an enemy. She'd still decided to get into bed with her anyway. She was the Wicked Witch, she really had no right to be angry when she had been exactly who she always claimed she was. David and Killian on the other hand, after all they'd done and promised her, after how much she'd trusted them…they were the ones she truly felt betrayed by.

"I don't think that'll be necessary but thank you," Zelena breathed as she quickly reached forward and pulled the baby into her arms. "What do you say Robin, hm?" she questioned shifting the blanket and bundle so that she could get an arm free. "I think it's time we went where we belong…home."

She looked her over. It wasn't the words that she'd used that set her on edge but rather the tone that she'd used with them. They were words of finality, sad and regretful all at once.

"Zelena…are uh…are things alright?" she questioned cautiously. Robin she adored, Zelena she still didn't trust and wasn't sure what she would do if the answer to that question wasn't a positive one. But to her relief the witch nodded.

"They will be," she muttered, nearly echoing her sister as her eyes never came off the child in her arms. The answer was what she wanted, but she didn't trust it. How was she supposed to respond when her gut told her there was more going on? Before she could come up with an answer or say anything else Zelena turned and walked out of the pawn shop with Robin, leaving behind her new giraffe.

* * *

 **Filler. Really this entire sub-plot was just filler and in truth, it kind of annoyed me in the next episode. I understand why they did this, had Belle watch Robin, I just think that the number of times Zelena shows up without Robin and Belle doesn't have her clearly shows that there are other people in Storybrooke capable of watching her and that having Belle do it after the 6x11 scenes made no sense. But I'm not a writer, what can I do other than rant and rave in my Author's Note.**

 **Thank you Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, and Fox24 for you reviews! I'm glad that you liked the interactions, filler as they may be! I'm hoping you'll love the chapters that come next more! Lots of good conversations are coming up with other characters that kind of make me happy in a wonderful way! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	49. Coming Clean

The rest of her day passed by uneventfully. Surprisingly uneventful. She wasn't prepared for things to be so quiet after Robin left, or so dull. In the absence of life, she was finally left with no other choice than to return to the library and collect a few books for reading. It was boring and she was unfocused, continuing to think about baby Robin and how she ached to have her back. She was smart, of course she knew that it wasn't an ache she felt for baby Robin so much as an ache for what she knew could never come to pass. It was Gideon, her own baby. Though he was here before her, fully grown, to her, he'd only been a newborn a week ago, and her arms still felt empty without his form cradled in them. She loved Robin, but she wanted her baby, not someone else's.

Her cell phone ringing in the other room was the perfect excuse for her to stop pretending to research and get up to do something else for a few moments. On her way, she wiped her eyes on the back of her hand and shook her head at how ridiculous she was being, longing for the impossible. Tears wouldn't help anything, she had to focus on what she did have. Gideon in any form was all she wanted.

"Get a hold of yourself," she muttered before picking up the phone and finding Rumple on the other end. "Rumple! How-how are things going?" she questioned, happy for the distraction and wandering back out into the front room. The sun was nearly down and the lighting was better there.

"I'm on my way back to the shop. Anything from Gideon or my mother?" he questioned without answering hers.

"No, quiet day, Zelena came by to have me watch Robin for a while, but nothing otherwise. I'd have called you if there was something."

"I'll be back in a bit, why don't you-" but she lost her focus on what she was supposed to do when three figures appeared at her door, and the bell chimed to admit them. Emma, Regina, and Zelena were there, and the first two didn't look happy. "Rumple, I've got to go, I'll talk to you soon," she stated quickly, snapping the phone closed in the presence of the women. The women…where was the girl.

"Is everything alright? Where-where's Robin?"

"With Granny," Zelena answered. "They're here to see you, and I thought it best not to make her watch."

"Me?! What are you talking about?"

"Actually we're not so much here to see you as we are here to see the Blue Fairy," Regina commented.

It took a second for her words to sink in and for her to realize the impact of them, but when she did, her eyes firmly fell upon Zelena.

"You told them," she breathed feeling exposed. So much for their secret being safe with her.

"What surprises me is that you didn't," Emma snapped looking at her. "She only did what you should have done days ago." Without further notice, Emma turned and the three women walked around her and into the back room. The shock of it all had her stranded there in the front for only a few seconds, until she heard someone in the back, possibly Emma sigh in dissatisfaction and shook herself out of it. No, she wasn't about to let them think that this was her fault or that this was a burden to carry. Rumple had done a good thing; they needed to understand that.

"It looks a lot worse than it actually is," she explained moving into the back with them.

"Worse than it is?! Belle, she looks half dead!"

"Well, she is. Dead, I mean, only not completely because she's a fairy."

"Gideon-"

"It wasn't Gideon," she insisted before Emma could go on. "It was Rumple."

"Rumple?!" Regina piqued before looking down at her in confusion. "He's never liked her, but he's never wanted her dead."

"And he doesn't, he did it for Gideon," she stated, her voice raising so that she could have her say instead of talking over the rest of them. It would all make sense if they'd only let her explain. "The sword that Gideon used to try to kill Emma-"

"The one from my vision?" Emma questioned. "The one that was broken? It was under lock and key in my office since this happened."

"Not anymore," she corrected. "Gideon was using that sword for a reason. He believed it was necessary in order to take your powers. But since it was broken the only way to reforge it would have been to take the magic of the person who had created it in the first place."

"The Blue Fairy," Regina muttered catching on.

She nodded. "Rumple didn't want Gideon to blacken his own soul, and he was afraid that if he did it, then he really would kill Blue, so he did it himself."

"He gave the sword to Gideon?" Emma blanched. "The one he needs to kill me."

"He had to!" she shouted back at Emma. "The Blue Fairy isn't dead, he didn't drain her entirely just took enough of her magic to make it look like she was dead, but if Gideon had done it…please, you have to understand…this is a lot more complicated than you think."

"How?" Emma questioned frustrated and unmoving.

"She has Gideon's heart."

Emma's eyes widened, and the arms she had crossed in front of her chest dropped quickly. "What? You're sure about this."

"Regina suspected it and told us then the Black Fairy confirmed it."

Emma and Zelena both looked at Regina. "You knew this."

"Suspected, after you said he left a flower behind."

"Gideon is being used," she interrupted, drawing the conversation back to him. "He's innocent just like I've been saying. He needs help! And…Rumple is certain the Blue Fairy can be revived, he's up at the sorcerer's mansion researching how to get her magic back so that we can wake her up right now."

"He did this without knowing how to wake her up?" Emma commented.

"Time was crucial, and it was imperative that Rumple convince him he'd destroyed her. There wasn't time to find a cure for what he did."

"Well, lucky for you we might have a way to wake her," Zelena insisted, finally speaking up. She stared at her in amazement.

"You do? What is that?"

"It's a long story," Zelena sighed. "But the short version is that I no longer have magic, and because of it we have a little crystal that is packed with light fairy magic, fairy magic Mother Blue here should be able to absorb."

"What?" The crystal was easy enough to believe, after all, there was a time a mushroom had been the answer to everything! But Zelena giving up her magic…was that true?

"It's an idea," Emma clarified. "We can't be sure if it'll work until we've tried it because we can't be sure what Rumple did."

"Listen, Emma…" she sighed taking a step forward because she could hardly believe what was happening. They were talking about waking the Fairy and getting the last piece of information they needed to destroy the fairy. But destroyed or not there was still more that she needed. Gideon's heart! Emma couldn't lose sight of that. They had to get his heart and rescue whoever was still left in that realm. "I'm not proud of what I did, but I did what I thought was best for my son."

"We both did," she looked over her shoulder to find Rumple behind her, back from the mansion, he'd come in the back door and what staring at the other three women in horror. "What are you doing here?"

"We're here to help you. You're welcome" Zelena stated almost too happily.

"Help me with what?"

"Your little fairy problem, which you don't seem able to solve," she replied.

"The Blue Fairy," Regina clarified. "We might be able to wake her." She watched as his face dissolved into obvious irritation and he stared at the nun on his cot. She felt her stomach twist. In an ideal world, this was not how she wanted him to find out about all this, but she was aware it was probably her fault. When she'd hung up the phone the way she had he'd probably sped right over.

"Unless…you found a way," she suggested hopefully, forcing him to look her over instead of concentrating purely on them. He wasn't happy. Though whether it was about Zelena and Emma or what he'd found at the mansion it was difficult to tell. It might have been both.

"Not yet, but I will," he admitted. She nodded, understanding exactly what was behind that statement. He hadn't found anything, but he was so determined he would that he didn't want their help. Stubborn like Neal…it ran in the family.

"But we might not need to wait, Rumple, if you'd just…let them try."

He didn't move a muscle as he watched her, stared at her, silently demanding that she stop this and side with him once more. She understood that. She felt it too. After these last few days and everything that had been said about them and their child, it was hard to accept help. But last week it had been hard for her to accept help from him, someone she'd sworn she would never be able to forgive, someone she'd never wanted to be in the same room with ever again. But they'd come so far this week. From never wanting to speak with him again to all too easily taking steps toward him and holding his hand in her own again. It was something she hadn't tried in a while, an ability she didn't think she possessed anymore, to simply take his hand and comfort him and get him to see reason. And yet here she found herself, ready to give it another try. For Blue, but especially for Gideon.

"Look," she whispered. "I realized today just how much we missed out on with Gideon, and that's time that we will never get back, but now that he's come here I refuse to let her steal any more of our time with him!"

Just as she felt her own face contort and harden, she watched as his own softened. The hand that she held limp in her own a moment ago suddenly flexed over her fingers as he nodded before looking up at the women.

"Get on with it," he urged. Rumple let go of her hand, and she glanced over at the women behind her.

Regina pulled something from her pocket, it looked like a crystal, not a piece of one, but a perfect and pure whole one she'd seen drawn into her books and had even caught glimpses of in the mine what felt like decades ago. It was dark, hazy in the shadow of Emma's hand, but she watched as Emma held the object over Mother Superior's chest and squeezed. Slowly it began to glow bright and then crack and crumble, turning to white dust that fell from her hand and landed on the Blue Fairy before disappearing into her clothes and she assumed her very flesh.

She didn't question why or how, she didn't give her time to open her eyes and wait to see if it worked, instead she reached out quickly and placed two fingers against her neck, checking her pulse just as Rumple had demanded of her earlier this morning. She held her breath for a few seconds as if her own breath might distract her from what she felt. Slowly but surely, she felt it there, a small predictable drum moving beneath the surface of her skin. And soon after, the rise and fall of the Fairy's chest.

"You did it," she smiled up at Emma. "Her heart's beating again!"

"Then it's only a matter of time before we wake her up," Rumple scowled behind her, for reasons she understood all too clearly. Waking her up meant information and information meant something he might not want to hear. But they both knew, though the other's might not, that it was inevitable at the moment, they knew what needed to be done.

* * *

 **So, here's the thing, I absolutely loved writing the 6x18/6x19 chapters they were meaty, and I suspect that was part of the problem with the actual episodes. I felt like there was a lot missing from them. A lot. Now, some of the stuff missing, like this scene, I get why it is missing. It's because the stuff we're missing here is already stuff we've seen and know. It's just that pesky matter of catching everyone else up. Rumple has to learn that Belle watched the baby, the others have to learn about what happened with Blue Belle has to learn how they can help, etc. That all made sense. It's what comes next that didn't make a lot of sense to me. When 6x19 opens and there's a Dragon Egg, it just seemed so random! I kid you not, I went back and watched both episodes and the deleted scenes expecting to find something in there with it, but nothing! And then the movement of people, and who is there, and what they know, etc...it was just too much to put into one chapter. Therefore, the rest of the chapters this week, are just that. It's what I felt were the missing scenes from here, to...well...there. Of course, I've also been working to build up to the dragon egg so that it's not totally random, but I think these next few chapters will really help tie it all together.**

 **Thank you, thank you, thank you Grace5231973, Fox24, Rumbellefan, and Paintbrush123 for the reviews you left me. I really excited for these "fill in the blank" chapters, and I can't wait to hear what you all have to say about them! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	50. Plan of Attack

She knew what waking Blue would mean to him, it was an explanation of things he needed the answer to but didn't necessarily want the answer to. His unease was evidence of his confliction and she understood it all too simply. She on the other hand didn't feel unease, only fear. He'd come so far, and she couldn't help but wonder if the news that Mother Superior had would break him in some way, setting back all the progress he'd made for his family in these weeks. She wanted to think it wouldn't happen, but it was hard to believe that when she'd seen it before. So with everyone breathing a sigh of relief over Mother Superior, she reached back and threw her arms around his neck, happy to feel his firm grip come over her back.

"Thank you, Rumple," she muttered in his ear.

He didn't answer her just held on equally as tight until she let him go and even then he kept his arm around her waist.

"Great, her hearts beating, why isn't she waking up?" Emma questioned staring down at her.

"Her body needs time to heal," Rumple explained quietly. "The Blue Fairy has been one of the most powerful magical beings for centuries, and she's just survived having her magic taken from her. That little crystal gives her back magic but it's just like planting a seed. It needs time to grow before she'll wake. It's not unlike after I lost my own magic."

"You were asleep for weeks!" Emma blanched. "If the stories about the Black Fairy are true we don't have weeks to wait for her to come around, and I doubt we're going to find something that touched her before she was a fairy."

"I suppose you can count True Love's Kiss off the list, as well," Zelena added.

"Rumple…the egg," she muttered looking up at him. "Would it work with her like this?"

He took a deep breath looking over the body and finally nodded. "It might…but she'd be incredibly weak. To force her awake without her magic being fully restored would leave her vulnerable."

"We can protect her," Emma assured him. "What egg are we supposed to be looking for?"

"One that never hatched…"

They all looked around Emma in surprise as the answer came not from Rumple, but rather from Regina.

"It's a dragon egg that never hatched," she explained while she held their attention.

"Where do we find a dragon egg that never hatched?" Emma questioned. "I haven't exactly seen Maleficent and Lily flying overhead lately."

"It doesn't have to be fresh," Regina pointed out. "But I do like your thinking. Maleficent will probably laid her fair share of eggs in her lifetime, I'm sure we can find at least one that never hatched. And if it's to do with Maleficent in the Enchanted Forest then under the library would be the first place we should look."

"Belle, have you ever seen something like that under the library?" Emma asked unexpectedly.

She immediately felt her eyes raise in shock at the question. "I-I-I don't know I've never been down there," she stuttered. Silence fell over the room as the women and Rumple stared at her in shock. Even she had to admit that she was a bit surprised not just at her answer, but her reasoning for it. It seemed like such a long time ago that it had all started, it seemed silly even to her.

"You told me not to go down there," she admitted looking up at Rumple.

He puffed out his chest in a small snort, and she saw the corner of his mouth twitch. "So I did."

And she had. She'd never taken the elevator down to whatever was below the library, she'd never had reason to, and after his warning, she'd never had a desire to. Odd how that worked.

"That cavern is vast," Regina finally suggested, breaking the silence. "It could take all night to search."

"Okay," Emma sighed digging her phone out of her pocket. "I'm going to call Hook; if we wake her up he's going to have questions."

"All due respect Miss. Swan, we'll all have questions."

"These questions potentially have the ability to destroy the fairy or at the very least send her back to where she was while we figure out how. Gold, can you stay here and look after the Blue Fairy while we're searching?"

"Isn't that what I've been doing all week?"

"Yeah, in the back of your shop, not exactly a great hiding place."

"I believe it kept you at bay."

Emma narrowed her eyes at him. "This isn't a game, Gold. Will you or won't you?"

"He will," she answered for him, because every combative line that passed between the two of them was time they could be using to search the cavern for what they needed. "I'm going with you," she muttered quickly, before anyone could argue for or against it.

"Never doubted you would," Emma commented at the same time Rumple tugged on her arm and pulled her aside. "Five minutes," Emma shot over her shoulder, still focusing on her phone as the other three walked out.

"I'm going Rumple, whether you like it or not."

"I'm not going to argue," he insisted. "I never wanted you down there because of the dragon, now that she's gone the threat is as well, but the tunnels beneath the library are untamed, and your ankle will be more difficult to heal should you hurt it."

It took her a few moments to realize what he was talking about, to remember that she'd broken her ankle not long ago and because he'd healed the bone as he had it would be weaker and more difficult to repair again via magic. She wasn't going to complain, she felt just as he did that healing it then and there was best, as doing everything that she'd done this last week for Gideon in a cast wouldn't have been possible, but she smiled as she came to the conclusion that magic wasn't always the best most powerful option. Though it would have taken a long time to heal, if this were an ordinary week she'd have suffered through with it.

"I'll be careful. You have my word."

"And keep your eyes open," he pressed placing his hands against her arms with a tight grasp. "They may be willing to go along with this plan for now, but we've no assurance that they'd be interested in helping retrieve Gideon's heart."

She didn't have it in her to tell him that she'd already told them about the heart simply because she couldn't be sure about it either. She wanted to believe the would help with that but they hadn't said much about it when she'd told them. She could only hope that while she was with them she might discover what exactly it was that Hook thought was going to send the Black Fairy away and that she might convince them that sending her back to where they came from with Gideon still in Storybrooke and the children still in her realm was an option that helped no one. The children would be harmed, and if she continued to possess Gideon's heart then they had to be prepared for the exact same thing to potentially happen again and she wasn't about to do that to her son.

With a sigh she took his hands from her shoulders and held them in her own. "I'll be careful, Rumple," she assured him again. "Trust me."

Her breath caught as she realized what exactly she was asking of him. Trust was something they were working on rebuilding. Though for a long time she'd thought that he had no right to doubt her day by day, sometimes hour by hour, she was becoming more and more aware what she had put him through during their time apart. Though it didn't forgive any of what he had done, it did help her to realize she had to earn it back from him as well. And then, maybe someday, forgiven it would all be. On both sides.

He nodded his head, and though the word "yes" didn't quite make it out of his mouth he at least formed the word. And his willingness not to argue, but let her go with them made her chest fill up with unexpected happiness in these dark times. She threw her arms around his neck once more and held tight, certain that this embrace meant something more than the others, but unable to identify what that "more" was.

"I'll be back soon," she muttered against his shoulder.

"Be careful," he insisted once more. She nodded. Entrusting her safety to others was not something he did simply. But instead of locking her away in the shop he was doing it. It was progress.

"I will," she assured him a third time before letting go to move out of the room. Still, as she moved away she fought back a grin as she realized that their hands had lingered as she'd moved away, still desperate for the last touch.

* * *

 **Progress! This chapter has a lot of progress in it and there was no hiding it. It was meant to be obvious. Belle's "trust me" was meant to harken back the chapters in the beginning of the Enchanted Forest when she'd asked if he trusted her and he responded with a "you more than her" comment. The fact that he's letting her go off and not trying to stop her as well as the fact that he's not locking her away...that's all progress! I hope it feels like progress. I know that for me, personally, a lot of these things felt like they came out of left field simply because they didn't have a lot of time to explore these little things like I've tried to. I get it. Television show, they can't show everything. I hope that I've done a decent job filling in the blanks so that this progression had felt a little more natural.**

 **Thank you, thank you, thank you to Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, and Fox24 for your reviews on the last chapter. I know this fiction had been long, it's one of the longest in the entire series, but I hope you all know how much it means that you've stuck with me through it! I'm so grateful for all of you and for your kind words and support! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	51. Assembling the Troops

Emma was still on the phone when she made her way out to the front of the pawn shop, but she was surprised to see that Regina was standing alone.

"Where's Zelena?" she questioned.

Regina sighed. "Losing her magic took a lot out of her, she wanted to spend some time with Robin so she went to Granny's to get her then go back home."

She closed her eyes in confusion, she didn't have the whole story but the bit about Zelena's magic being gone…that was still difficult to understand.

"When you say she lost her magic…do you mean-"

"I mean the Wicked Witch is no longer a witch," Regina confirmed. "And after what she went through to do that, she's not exactly 'wicked' anymore either. 'Crazy' perhaps, but not wicked."

As Emma finished up on the phone Regina made a motion with her head that they should leave and though she meant to ask her more about it when they were out of the shop instead she found herself stunned as she ran right into Snow White and David.

"Snow! David!" Regina exclaimed looking nearly as startled as she was. She knew they were awake but had yet to see them with each other, much less run into them. She wasn't prepared and instantly felt rage radiate through her body at the pair. She clenched her fists together in an attempt to muzzle it. If they were here to help the Blue Fairy, then they were here to help Gideon. Yes, that was how she had to see it. But that didn't mean she had to be happy about it. "We thought you'd be-"

"Emma sent us a message and we were close by so we thought we'd join the party," David explained quickly.

The door to the shop opened again and this time it was Emma who seemed taken back by their presence. "Mom! Dad! I figured you two would be-"

"We know, but…" Snow sighed and took David's hand, looking up into his face and smiling. "Now that the curse is broken we have decades ahead of us. You need us now."

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Emma," Snow chastised walking closer to her daughter. "We're all in this together and we're here to help in any way we can until it's over."

Emma opened her mouth but the voice that she heard wasn't her own, it was Killian's. "Swan!" he called jogging down the street, startling Emma for a moment before relief touched her features. "You called."

Emma beamed and pulled away from her parents before leading the group across the street. But as Emma neared him, Killian looked across the street at the group gathered, then caught her eye, and instantly his smile vanished. She looked away quickly and squeezed her fists even tighter as she followed after Emma without giving him an opportunity to say a word to her. As far as she was concerned talking to Hook or David tonight was not a priority she was concerned with. And that was as much for their good as her own.

Once they were inside the library they located flashlights and Regina opened the elevator. "We're looking for a dragon egg, one that never hatched. Dragon's lay them every year whether they're fertilized or not so when we find the breeding ground there will probably be dozens of eggs. Call me, this isn't as simple as you think," Regina explained as the elevator came to an ominous thud and stopped.

When the doors opened she saw why the elevator had taken so long. This wasn't just a basement beneath her library, this truly was a cavern. Black and brown, covered in dust and ashes and smelling of burnt coal. The ceiling rose up high over their heads. Not so high that she couldn't make it out, but certainly they were deep enough under the earth that if something happened down here and she screamed, no one would have heard her cries for help. The light was dim, coming mostly from the elevator and their flashlights, she could see tunnels that led out of this cavernous room but had no idea where they went. And sometimes, when she trained her flashlight on the walls, the black spots they bore were different than the coal black she saw elsewhere. It was as though they'd been burned. A dragon.

"Still brighter than hell," Killian commented beside her in some kind of attempt to make a joke. She didn't particularly consider it funny.

"Maleficent lived down here as a dragon for twenty-eight years?!" she blanched.

"Which is why I'm sure I'll never be invited another birthday party again," Regina added. "We'll start with the main room, though I doubt we'll find anything it's important that we look. After that we can break off into smaller groups and search the tunnels."

"Well, looks like there's some good news there…some of them are too small to fit a dragon," Emma observed.

Regina sighed and turned to face her. "We'll need to search them too," she informed her gently. "I know what we're looking for and chances are that it's something that was carried over from the Enchanted Forest before the curse…that could be anywhere."

Saddened by that news they all took their flashlights and began to examine the ground before them. She was careful, just as she'd promised Rumple, looking down and placing her feet on places that looked secure, though she had to admit that this felt far more like rock climbing than she had expected.

"Whoa!" When she put her foot down she accidentally knocked some rocks away and was surprised to watch them not just roll away but instead fall off a ledge. Though she was sure Rumple would rebel, her curiosity got the better of her and putting her hand against a natural stone pillar for extra security she peered over the edge into what was a great chasm of blackness the beam from her flashlight couldn't penetrate.

"That's more than a broken ankle," she muttered to herself timidly stepping away. She didn't know how deep it went, but she wasn't exactly eager to find out.

Turning away she went back to-

She gasped and jumped at a figure standing behind her and nearly lost her balance but the figure reached out to grab her elbow so that she could steady herself again. Setting her heart rate back to normal was going to be another thing altogether.

"Killian," she muttered wrenching herself out of his grasp and placing her hand on her chest. "You scared me!"

"I didn't intend to frighten you, I just…I've been meaning to talk to you now for some time."

Talk to her…she had a feeling she knew exactly what it was about but she wasn't sure she really wanted to talk to him at the moment, or if now was the right time.

"We're a bit busy down here at the moment," she pointed out, stumbling away from him, hoping he'd return to searching just as she was.

Instead she only heard footsteps behind her. "The dust was Zelena's idea," he commented quickly, walking by her side.

"Oh?" It was all she managed to get out. Whether it was true or not she didn't know but she knew what she'd heard up at that cabin. Hook had been involved and that was all that mattered at the moment.

"She froze you when you brought her to the police station and took it off the Evil Queen while she was a snake. Neither David or I were comfortable with it, but with Emma gone-"

"I understand your desperation," she interrupted, unable to listen to excuses. "But that didn't mean it was the right thing to do. I went to you and David because I trusted you and…you tried to help Zelena kill my son for Emma. No matter how desperate you were that isn't right."

She tried to walk away from him again but he was quick to follow after her. "No, it wasn't. I see that now. I never meant to hurt you or betray you like that, and I never wanted Zelena to use it. It was supposed to be a back-up plan that wasn't the appropriate time-"

"Killian…" She had to stop him yet again before he hung himself with what he was saying because none of it was helping. She understood he was trying to apologize but the words were wasted. She wasn't ready to look past what he and David had done, place and simple. What she was ready to do was search the cavern and help Gideon. She couldn't do that if he kept making her clench her flashlight so tight she would break the flashlight.

"It's easy to apologize and be remorseful when you have everything that you want within your grasp. It's another thing entirely to feel the weight of your actions outside of all that."

When she moved away this time she sighed with relief when the footsteps didn't follow after her.

"So that's the end of it then?" he called instead, making her close her eyes in frustration. "One mistake and you align yourself with the Dark One again. After everything he's done to you? To me? And Milah before that?!"

"I'm not siding with anyone," she hissed turning back around, it was the only thing she could do to keep from screaming and drawing attention to the pair of them. This was not the appropriate place to get into any of this. "At least not in the way you think! I'm just…I'm done! I'm done trying to sort out this thing that happened between you and Rumple centuries before I was even born. It was awful, I understand that, I don't deny it, but you have to understand it was awful on both sides! Three sides! Milah possesses her fair share of guilt in all of that too! It's a tangled mess, and the only thing I can see to do is accept that you all played your role in it and move on, stop letting the past play out this little war and stop letting myself be part of it! It's time to put that in the past and look to the future. You have years of life to look forward to with Emma, and Rumple and I have Gideon. It's time we all let Milah rest in peace."

"So that's it then? Just like that the crocodile has you again?"

"No, my son has me!" she corrected quickly. "And him. Gideon has both of us together and we are going to save him from the Black Fairy. What that means for us…we have to let the future tell."

It was a shocking confession even to her ears, but it was the best that she could do for the moment. She didn't want to say 'yes' that the two of them would be together again and live happily ever after because she wasn't sure that after all this she believed in happily ever after! But she couldn't get herself to say 'no' either, that she and Rumple would continue to live apart and figure out a way to raise Gideon together separately. Before what was standing in their way was a lack of trust that she was certain he would never earn back. She still didn't trust him as she had long ago when she was nothing but a wide-eyed, optimistic girl but she had to admit that it was growing once more. On both sides. Whether or not he could keep it and grow it further, she wasn't sure. What it meant if he did…well, she wasn't entirely sure she was ready to answer that question yet either. And the realization was numbing.

"I uh…I think we've searched this cavern to the best of our abilities," she muttered. "I think it's time we split up."

* * *

 **One of the purposes of these chapters is to try and explain all the coming and going. Last scene in 6x18 we see Rumple, Belle, Emma, Zelena, and Regina. The first scene in 6x19 we see Rumple, Belle, Emma, Hook, Snow, and David. That's a lot of movement. I had to figure out how to get rid of some characters, while bringing others on in a way that's not Regina saying "Oh, you need a Dragon Egg, now sounds like a good time to take a nap!" This chapter is more about getting the characters in, in a couple of chapters we'll dismiss certain characters. But the thing about bringing certain characters back, characters like Hook and David and Regina, I knew it meant I was going to have to have a conversation like this because of the events that happened. Hook seemed like the obvious choice just because Zelena is already gone and David, well...::Spoiler alert::...David isn't really David right now. Please note, that this conversation isn't meant to sound so much like break up as an ultimatum or maybe even just downright advice. I wanted to give Belle this opportunity as the youngest of those affected by the 2x04 events to be the voice of reason. Put your shit in the past or else we're never going to live enough in the present to have a future.**

 **Thank you Fox24, Paintbrush123, and Grace5231973 for your reviews on the last chapter. I hope you like this conversation just as much as the last one even if the conversation is a bit touchier. I do feel that no matter how you feel about Hook or the Belle/Hook relationship a conversation like this was going to be completely necessary at some point. I felt it was very in character for Hook to try and explain his actions and I felt Belle's "you really messed up and I don't really want to hear it right now but I'll still work with you" was also in character. I hope you'll agree, but of course, you are always the final judge! I await your reviews in eager anticipation...and maybe with emotional armor. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	52. Of Villains and Heroes

And split up they did. Though David had eagerly volunteered to go with her through one of the tunnels, she instead stated she preferred Regina; simply because she felt certain David wanted to have the exact same conversation with her that Hook had and she wasn't ready for a repeat so soon. She and Regina chose one of the smaller veins, were a dragon obviously couldn't fit, to search. Odd how the bones of mice still riddled the floor. It made it difficult to look down when she knew she'd have to see their corpses below her feet and in the end she preferred not to clarify what she was stepping on that cracked beneath her weight.

Unlike searching the caverns with Hook, she and Regina were quiet, they didn't talk as they let their flashlight beams stretch out before them and when added to the silence of the cave she found herself quite comfortable with that. Her mind was too busy for her to carry on a generic conversation with Regina. The truth was that what Hook had said stayed with her long after their conversation ended. Things she hadn't realized were suddenly thrust back into the forefront of her mind and she wasn't ready for it at a time like this. But if this was going to go the way she thought it was, the way she hoped it would then they really were coming to an end with the Black Fairy. And that meant that she had a decision to make. Again.

What happened after all this was over? After Gideon was safe and with them again? They'd have to help him get established in Storybrooke, used to things here instead of in the other realm. And of course she looked forward the bringing Rapunzel and Flynn back…but what about her? Where would she go? When she and Rumple no longer had this mission to bind them together what would they do then?

She felt as though she'd made this decision a dozen times in her life. Half a dozen times since they were married six months ago! She might think that she knew exactly what she would get from each of her options and yet it still tortured her! Weeks ago this was a simple answer, now she wasn't sure one way or another. Go back to the house? Would he even want her back if she decided that was the right thing to do? Find an apartment? Who would Gideon live with? How would he see his family if the first thing they did when they retrieved him was go their separate ways? Fix what was left to fix...there was still a lot to fix, there was no doubt about that. But when they'd started this journey she'd firmly believed it wasn't possible, that the foundation of what they'd had before had been cracked and damaged beyond repair. After this week she was certain it could be repaired if they worked at it. The question was were they willing to work at it? Both of them? And what did they do in the meantime? How did they live until then?

Her thoughts were jumbled pieces of a puzzle and putting them back gave her a headache. For weeks she'd seen nothing except rescuing her son. Now it was difficult to see what lay beyond that moment.

"You're awfully quiet over there," Regina finally muttered as they walked on, the beams from their flashlights touching ground, walls, even ceiling in an effort to find those eggs.

"Just looking for the eggs," she answered quietly, rubbing her forehead to ease the pressure behind her eyes.

Her relationship with Regina seemed to be the perfect example of how people could shift from less desireable to more over time. Months ago she would never have wandered down this corridor with her. She would have made it clear that anything they did together was done for the greater good and had no preference for working with her at all. Her opinion of her hadn't changed in that time, but what had was her relation to the others she associated with. Now, compared to everyone else she was here with, she felt as though Regina was the safest option that she had. She was the only one who hadn't actively tried to kill her son and therefore once more she was back to being her friend. By default, of course, but still, her former jailer was the friendly one once again.

She shook her head as she pondered it all. Villains doing acts of good and heroes committing acts of evil. Perhaps Rumple really was right about people.

"Shades of gray…" she breathed with a smirk, trying to think about what shade she was at the moment. She had a feeling that after the Blue Fairy debacle everyone would have different opinions of exactly what shade she was.

"What?" Regina questioned beside her, stopping their progress and looking around as if she'd found something.

"It's nothing," she muttered walking on. "Just something Rumple said to me."

"Right," Regina mumbled as she began walking again. There was a long silence that stretched between them, a silence that was different than what they'd been in before she'd spoken. It was a silence that itched for words and therefore she couldn't say she was shocked the moment that Regina took a deep breath and asked "are you two together again?" in a casual and yet obviously interested tone.

She didn't even open her mouth to respond. That was a question that everyone wanted to know at the moment, including herself. The answer wasn't 'yes' and the answer wasn't 'no'. And yet somehow 'I don't know' wasn't an answer either. It made for an uncomfortable silence.

"You know, couldn't we just call Maleficent and ask her where the eggs are?" she questioned instead, changing the subject.

"Doubtful," Regina answered. "Dragons are fiercely protective of their eggs even in human form, even if they're unhatched. It's an instinct they have. I guarantee you that if she knew we were even down here searching she'd be here rushing us out. Not even the Blue Fairy is worthy of allowing us to take an egg, hatched or unhatched."

That would certainly be the opposite of helpful at the moment. "What if she comes down here now?"

"She and her living daughter have enough to worry about besides her old eggs. That won't happen unless someone tips her off."

"And you can't think of anything like that could happen?"

"You mean by magic? No…any she had would have died when she did and would have needed to be reset when she came back. And like I said, I doubt she's had enough free time to do that."

"But you can't be sure."

"No," she growled. She looked around the tunnel they were in, all the while thinking that at any second Maleficent could appear and demand that they leave without the egg in tow. Maybe, if that was the case, their time was better spent looking in the more likely places for eggs.

"Maybe we should search another tunnel…" she suggested. "A full grown dragon couldn't get down here to lay an egg!

"Which is exactly why we're searching it," Regina commented. "What we're looking for is not something that she could have produced since she's been in Storybrooke."

"What are you talking about?" Regina was certain. As certain as could be but she didn't understand her certainty.

Regina sighed. "It just so happens I've used the essence within a dragon egg before and it's not as simple as just finding a random egg that she's laid."

"We need a dragon egg, how complicated could that be?"

"An unhatched dragon egg," Regina corrected. "There's a difference."

She shook her head. She was speaking in riddles and her head already hurt. If there was something she wasn't understanding...

"Regina, just tell me, what's the difference."

"Well…do you consider the eggs that you buy from the store 'unhatched'?"

"No," she answered honestly.

"Of course not, because they were never fertilized and there was never a chick inside."

She felt tingling creep up around her legs and then her fingertips and into her hands and arms, tendrils of creepiness as she was beginning to catch on.

"You're telling me we're not just looking for a dragon egg, but one with a baby dragon inside it?"

"Usually the eggshell is too thick and tough for the dragon to crack and so it dies in the egg before it hatches. It's the breath that we're really after."

She sighed as understanding fell into place. "So we're looking not for a nesting ground but something that got carried over by the curse because-"

"Because Mal was alone down here for twenty-eight years. And we know that she couldn't have laid an egg as carry over because she'd laid one just before the curse. The only way she could have an unhatched egg is if it was fertilized in the Enchanted Forest, never hatched, and was carried over in the curse."

She shivered with the knowledge that it wasn't just a dragon egg but one with a fully formed dragon inside of it that they were looking for. The others seemed oblivious aside from Regina. And Rumple…she wasn't sure how aware of all that he'd been, but her gut told her that if Regina knew, then he probably knew as well. He'd looked right at her when he'd talked about it. Her stomach was in knots at the idea of it, but if this was what was necessary to get her son back then it was what had to be done. No matter how much it made her shiver.

"So if we find a cash of eggs how are we supposed to know the difference between an empty egg and a…not empty egg. How do we know there is even one that we need there."

"Dragon eggs don't hatch more often than they do, that's why we don't have more dragons running around the city. They're rare."

"And how will we tell them apart."

"Through various techniques."

The ominous sound of her voice made her very much want to turn back at that moment and refuse to investigate any further but thoughts of Gideon spurred her forward. She swallowed hard, waiting for the unease in her stomach to disappear, then sighed with determination. She could do this.

"What kind of-"

Her question dissolved into a scream as the ground beneath her gave way and she fell through it.

* * *

 **Considering what happens between 6x18 and 6x19 I wanted for Belle to have to start thinking about the future. This seemed as good a time as any. Love them or hate them, Emma and her family know now that Gideon's heart is being held against him, so I figured that would probably make Belle a bit hopeful and allow her, for the first time in a long time, not only to think "wow we might actually make it out of this" but also "what comes next" especially where Rumple is concerned. She's smart enough to realize that eventually the emergency will end and she'll have to decide where that leaves them. And Regina is not only smart enough to recognize that they've been spending their time together and the little things like how she says his name, but she's also brazen enough to come right out and say "so what's up with that?" That being said, I didn't want her to have an "ah-ha!" moment right away and commit one way or another, that seemed too out of character and really just too perfect. So instead I'm settling for most of this chapter being a debate which will lead us to some good stuff! Including a surprise for you that even I didn't see coming!**

 **Thank you Paintbrush123, Fox24, Grace5231973, and Rumbellefan for your comments on the last chapter. I'm glad that you mostly thought that chapter went to a good place and wasn't completely out of left field. I do try my hardest to get everything right for you and I will continue to do that throughout the episode! Back to some "seen" stuff in the next chapter as we're in 6x19 now! Ever closer to the end! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	53. Unsuccessful Attempts

It was pure luck that they found what they were looking for, and nothing else. Frankly it was pure luck and nothing else that she hadn't hurt herself finding it! When she fell through the floor of the cavern she'd landed in something soft. Ash. Covered head to toe in the black soot she'd coughed and sputtered as Regina called down the hole her body had created, asking if she was okay. When she looked up and found the beam of her flashlight she was dazzled. Gold. Jewels. Treasure. As far she could see. This little cavern was packed floor to ceiling with glittering valuables of all shapes, sizes, and, she assumed, cultures. But the true treasure she saw wasn't in the gold or jewels or even the ornamental rugs and furnishings.

Eggs. Dozens of them. Some partially buried under piles of gold, some propped up on top, others still in their nests. She's found it, or fallen into it. Maleficent's cash from the Enchanted Forest. But had they really found "it"? She was quick to scream up to Regina that she found it and before she knew it the Mayor was standing before her, offering a hand so she could stand. Her ankle hurt, but not as bad as it had before, and it wasn't swelling so she could only assume that it was a small sprain. She urged Regina to look for the egg, but instead she'd knelt down and tried to heal it, coming away looking more than shocked when a simple wave of her hand didn't fix it.

"I broke it a week ago. Rumple said it would be difficult to heal."

"Bone healing doesn't mix well with magic," Regina responded unamused. But still, she squatted there on the ground with her purple hand hovering over her ankle for a minute or two before she finally felt the pain recede. After she was healed Regina wasted no time in examining the eggs, discounting one after another. "Too small to be full grown," she dismissed of the one under the pile of coins. "Not heavy enough," she excused of another close by, picking it up and bouncing it up and down as if to weigh it. "Not old enough," she stated putting her ear to the shell and giving it a little jiggle. Her stomach turned as she could only guess what she was listening for. Finally, she paused at one that appeared to be in a pile of ash, similar to what she'd landed in. She picked it up, weighed it, listened inside, then finally turned and smiled. "Our prize."

Considering what it was she couldn't say that she was terribly excited about it, but if it got them out of here and woke the Blue Fairy then so be it. Together they got out of the hole and gathered everyone together once more in the large cavern. They all looked no better than she did, soot everywhere, staining their clothes, their cheeks, their hair. Their search was obviously very thorough. But she didn't know just how long it had been until they piled back in the elevator and the doors opened to sunlight in the library's foyer.

It was morning, they'd been down there all night. And the sun wasn't the only thing to greet them. "Finally," Zelena groaned when they all emerged. "I thought you'd never surface from the land of the dragon." She hopped off of the desk, baby Robin swaddled in her arms blissfully asleep.

"I thought you went home!" Regina blanched.

Zelena's face fell and she looked down at Robin. "I can't…I used magic to get here and now…" her voice trailed off but no one dared to finish the sentence for her. In fact most of them shuffled uncomfortably around it.

Regina alone sighed. "Why don't you all get cleaned up?" she suggested looking over her shoulder at them. "I'll take this to Gold and then take Zelena home."

"Oh, we can take it," Snow volunteered. "We don't mind."

"No, that's alright," Regina insisted. "You look more like Coal Black right now than Snow White, and besides, it'll take a while to get this open. Get cleaned up, it'll be there when you get back." And so the crowd dispersed. Snow and David excused themselves to get cleaned up but promised they'd be back quickly once they were changed. Emma and Hook didn't need to go home, they both apparently kept several changes of clothes at the police station because things like this "happened too often not too." As for her, she returned upstairs to Rapunzel's apartment, where she picked out more of her friend's clothes, and let the hot water wash away the black that she seemed to find on every inch of her skin, even the bits that had been covered by clothes.

She couldn't help but notice how slow she moved. She was tired. Another sleepless night that she was sure Rumple would insist she remedy immediately, but given how close they were to getting Gideon back she couldn't be sure when sleep would come to her. On and on she moved. Shower first. Examine her leg second. After making sure that it was sturdy and unbruised she did her hair. When she finally sat down on the bed to put her shoes on she felt the pull of sleep, the urge to lay back and just rest her eyes for an hour or so…the only remedy was to quickly pick herself up and get moving.

She had always hated coffee, but fortunately Rumple didn't and neither had Lacey. He had a coffee maker in the apartment that he'd used several times and Lacey knew how to use it. She still thought it tasted nasty, but the drug inside of it gave her a jolt of energy so that when she looked down through the window at the pawn shop and saw Emma and Killian arrive back, freshly dressed and cleaned as well, leaving was all too easy for her.

Over at the shop she realized she was the last to show up. Regina and Zelena were already gone, and Snow, David, Emma, and Killian were all gathered around the bed watching Rumple who was fiddling with one of the sharpest knives she'd ever seen. He was scraping with it around the top of the egg, making careful motions as if he was painting a picture instead of prying open an egg. The knife was understandable if what Regina had said was true, and it was hard as a stone. When she finally came into the room he didn't stop his work, merely glanced up at her before glancing back down.

"Regina said she healed you," he muttered so that she could hear the frustration in his voice.

She glared back at him. Yes, she'd promised that she'd be careful and she had been, but there was no way to plan for falling through a floor and spraining an ankle!

"It was just a sprain. It's not even bruised now," she pointed out.

He glanced up at her and she could tell that he was still upset, but with others in the room that was about as far as he was willing to go with it. She was grateful, it wasn't particularly an argument she wanted to have in front of others and now wasn't the time.

He was still digging at the top of the egg when a putrid smell filled the back of the pawn shop and she knew she wasn't alone in smelling it.

"Gold, that smells disgusting, what is that?" Emma questioned.

"The dragon egg that never hatched," Rumple answered. "And the dragon breath trapped inside…is potent medicine, indeed."

Potent medicine…she wasn't sure she was prepared to use those kinds of words for the smell coming off of it at the moment even if her talk with Regina had confirmed that what he was saying was true.

"And that's how you wake up Blue? A dead baby dragon?" Hook inserted. Clearly Regina, Rumple, and her were the only ones that actually understood what they were looking for and what they'd had to find. Just as she had, they hadn't made the connections that Regina had helped her to make...until now.

"That's Dark even for the Dark One," Emma finished for him, her tone suggesting disgust and annoyance.

"Do you have a better idea, Miss Swan?" he questioned glancing over at her. Emma cast her eyes down, and the smell was the only thing that kept the smile off of her face as Emma gave a small shake of her head. She looked as though she was a child who had just been caught saying naughty words. In some ways that wasn't too far off from what really had transpired. They'd helped look for the egg, if they hadn't understood it then they should have asked those questions before they'd done it. And really, it would be a different story if he was responsible for the dead of the infant inside. He was simply using what he could of the remains. He gave the lost soul purpose. There was little else that could be asked for.

"That's the problem with Saviors, isn't it?" Rumple commented as he finally pulled the top off the egg. The smell intensified a hundred-fold and she felt like she was going to be sick as she watched a smog the color of rotten algae emerge from the egg. "They're not quite as helpful as advertised," he finished as he moved the egg closer to Mother Superior.

As if sensing its target the putrid fog drifted in tendrils like octopus arms over to Blue. They grazed and caressed her skin before entering her body through her nose. And then, as if she'd smelled help on the way, she watched as Mother Superior opened her mouth and took a deep breath. Despite the lingering smell, she stepped forward eagerly, waiting, watching, expecting with every passing second the Fairy would open her eyes and they'd have all this solved. Or most of it at least. But only a second later, her mouth closed and she sank back into the non-responsive sleep she'd been stuck in.

"Well I guess neither are you," Emma growled looking at her.

* * *

 **I said a couple of chapters ago that in the space between 6x18 and 6x19 not only did I have to usher people into the scene but I also had to usher some of the people out (Regina and Zelena). Also I had to come up with a way to get them to go and change their clothes because once again after everyone gets on board it seems like a really bad time for Emma to say "great work team, let's go take a nap and pick this up in the morning." The search for the egg, looking in the mines, and then realizing that Zelena can't leave without Regina because she can't drive yet, helped me to do all of that. And so...welcome to the 6x19 chapters! This is the last really long section that we have to get through as 6x20, 21, and 22 will be shorter.**

 **Thank you, thank you, thank you to Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, and Fox24 for your reviews. Good catch at David being eager to go with Belle! You win!** **I figured that all things considered, that would be a great way for him to try and spend time with his mom and after all that stuff at the beginning with Gideon avoiding Belle, I thought it would be a nice gesture for him to want to be with her! I hope that these few chapters between 6x18 and 6x19 have filled in the blanks for you. I don't know, maybe it was just me, but they bothered me. These chapters eliminate that for me, hopefully, they eliminate any of that for your as well. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	54. Tug of War

The egg failed. And no one looked more shocked than Rumple.

After Emma's dig, she watched as he stood up and threw the scalpel he'd been using upon the table and walked away from the room.

"Little old for a tantrum isn't he?" she heard Emma mutter.

She glared at the woman, the woman who was threatening their child while his heart was held hostage, who had been separated from her parents for so long she might have a bit of sympathy for what his own absent mother was putting him through right this moment. She wanted to lash out, to make some dreadful remark that might make her feel some remorse for her behavior, but she couldn't make the words form quickly enough. Angry as she was, she felt unable to put two words together for her. Instead, she grabbed her coat but cast her another glare that she hoped might make Emma feel guilt down to her very marrow for the comment. If people were varying shades of gray, Emma didn't want to know what she thought of her shade at the moment.

Pulling on her coat in the front room, she hurried to catch up with her husband, knowing that being too emotional was never a good thing for the Darkness inside of him. She had to hurry, if he left or disappeared by magic the chances of her finding him were slim. She was nearly outside when she heard a loud crash that made her run the last few steps to the door.

It sounded worse than it actually was. With as loud as the bang was she half expected to see a car flipped over on its side or a metal sign of some kind mangled with fire, but instead she saw only a pile of red metal across the street. It was the newspaper dispenser. He'd used his magic to toss it across the street. It was out of anger; she didn't need to see his face to know that. She could see rolling off of his shoulders and down his back. It was anger that she couldn't necessarily blame him for. She felt like she wanted to do the same thing.

But she was very aware that frustrating as it all was, being out here and tossing newspaper boxes around wasn't going to help Gideon or get his heart back. It was only playing into his mother's hands. The Black Fairy wanted him frustrated and riled up. She wanted him to feel powerless and desperate so that she could fulfill her own prophecy and see Rumple come to her. She hadn't succeeded yet, but she was well on her way if this kind of behavior continued. And she wasn't about to accept that.

"That make you feel better?" she questioned slamming the door behind her. She wasn't about to let Emma bring him down so that he could succumb to his mother like this. She wasn't about to lose both her men to that evil bitch. Only over her dead body would that happen.

"No," he answered honestly.

The pain in his eyes was palpable. She knew that this hurt him, she knew that he might not want to wake Mother Superior while at the same time he did. She couldn't imagine how difficult this was for him, but they had to resist her, for Gideon. She needed him to be at his best right now. Gideon needed them to be at their best. The Black Fairy wanted him at his worst.

"Look…this is about defeating your mother, isn't it?" she assumed.

He didn't answer, but he didn't have to. His face, the way he avoided her eyes and looked away from her, pretending like he wasn't hearing her words was all the confirmation that she needed. And it was all she needed to feel the grit of against her soul. He may not have needed to answer but that didn't mean that he shouldn't have. Just days ago they had talked about needing to confide in each other more often and now, just like that, he was back to silence! She wouldn't let her take him. Not after all she'd already done in his life.

"Rumple, stop it!" she insisted stepping up next to him. It was harsh, she knew it was, but the truth was that it really was as simple as that. He had to stop this and put it aside for Gideon. They were so close to saving their son, and the two of them were so close to…something she wasn't sure she wanted to admit to yet. They couldn't lose it. "You are letting her get under your skin."

"She has Gideon's heart!" he shot back. "I've already lost one son, Belle, I can't lose another."

"And you won't!" she assured him. She was perfectly aware of all those things, but she had more hope in these last couple of days than she had in weeks and it was because of him. They weren't going to lose this fight. It wasn't a possibility. Because she couldn't lose another son either. Not after Neal. "Not as long as his mother's drawing breath."

Rumple swallowed, then stood up tall and before she knew what had happened, he'd reached for her hands. "He's so lucky to have you," he muttered, his tone not as tender or reassuring as she would have liked, but something at least. "Sometimes I feel that…this is our family's fate. For parents and children always to be torn apart."

She squeezed his hands. With eyes and words like that, touches like this…what were they doing? What exactly was happening between them? Because the urge to take one step closer was making her legs itch right down to her toes, and she was sure that if she did take that step, it wouldn't be for a platonic and supportive embrace they'd shared thus far in their journey. She wasn't sure if given the tug of war she found herself in she could resist the urge to mark him as hers and not his mother's. What were they doing like this again? Hadn't they learned anything?

"Hey, guys!" Emma's voice echoed from the shop and nearly made her jump as she finally forced her eyes away from his own. Saved by the bell? Or not? "You might wanna get in here!"

Her heart raced as she realized Emma's words were not angry. They were rushed. She was hurrying them along, and she knew at that moment when Rumple turned on a dime and only let go of her hand with a final squeeze that they were both thinking the same thing. It could only be the Blue Fairy.

* * *

 **I'm sorry this moment is super short, truly I am. But it just didn't work to attach it to the last chapter and it didn't make sense to attach it to the next chapter. In the end, it may be short, but I still think it came out as a nice little seen moment between the two of them. If you disagree, I'm sorry, it just is what it is.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, and Fox24, for your reviews on the previous chapter. I hope you'll be pleased with these next few chapters. This was a great Rumple episode, but for Belle it meant a lot of sitting around and waiting. That was one of the reasons I thought Belle having some internal struggles was well placed in the context of this episode because she has time to have those struggles while she waits. My hope is you won't mind too much. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	55. The Fox in the Hen House

She followed him into the back room, watching him move faster than she'd seen him move before.

"At first nothing happened," Emma explained in the shop. "But then she groaned and moved a little, and we thought that maybe it just takes time!"

In the back room, they saw that Snow was sitting at the bedside of the Blue Fairy. She wasn't awake, her eyes were still very obviously closed, but she could see her head shaking back and forth just a bit, as if she was coming into an awareness that she was sleeping and was trying to wake up.

"Blue…it's Snow." Snow White was sitting on the side of the bed, gently coaxing her and she would have thought that it was useless, but now and then she could hear a small groan or noise coming from her. She remembered how difficult that was after sleeping curses, the body wanted to stay asleep, but the mind wanted to wake and even after it was broken it was as if the curse was desperately holding on to the life it had, dragging the soul back down into the red abyss. Of course, what the Blue Fairy had gone through was much worse than a simple sleeping curse, but she still wondered if coming out of this was like that, if Emma was right, and the Dragon Egg had worked but just taken a bit longer.

Finally, it happened. She woke. Barely, but she was awake. If the Fairy hadn't turned the corners of her mouth up in a soft dreamy smile, she never would have known it had finally happened. Her eyes opened so that they were merely tiny slits.

"Snow," she breathed, looking over her friend.

"Hey," Killian insisted, stepping forward at the end of her waking breath and pulling something wooden from his pocket. "Tiger Lily gave me half this wand. We need the other half. Where is it? Have you seen it?!" he demanded before the fairy had a chance to fully open her eyes.

"Hook!" Snow chastised. "Give her a minute."

The pirate glanced back at Emma, who said nothing but obviously agreed with her mother. The same was easily said of herself. She hadn't even been awake a minute, and the pirate was interrogating her. She was certain that given the circumstances the Blue Fairy would tell them all they needed to know but they had to let her take a breath first. She'd had so few of them over the last week, and this wasn't like waking Rumple up from his coma, this was like bringing someone back from the dead.

They watched as she breathed, opened and closed heavy eyelids a few times then finally swallowed. "The wand is…it's at the center of Storybrooke," the fairy muttered.

Snow White leaned forward with interest and gently caressed the Blue Fairy's cheek. "That's enough of that," she whispered almost tenderly…before reaching out and sealing her hand over the fairy's throat. "We don't need you sharing all your secrets."

Her stomach turned as the position Snow had over the woman suddenly changed from kind and caring to menacing. Something was wrong.

"Mom!" Emma pondered stepping forward. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm not your mother, Emma," she answered with another voice she was coming to recognize all too well. Her cover broken, she watched as the face of Snow White began to transform. It grew longer and slimmer; even her hands began to take on a far more slender and bony form. Her hair grew and her clothes turned black. The Black Fairy! "I'm his!" she declared looking over toward Rumple.

He took a step back, just as surprised as they all had been.

"Now back away all of you, fairies have such delicate necks." She gave a small shake of her hand, and she looked quickly back toward Mother Superior suddenly remembering the precarious position that she had been in. The grip she had on her neck wasn't just a caress anymore it was a vice squeezing so tight the Fairy looked like she was once more struggling for breath.

"You should listen to her…" David insisted behind them. "Father." When they finally turned to stare, she watched as David's face became that of her son's. "She always makes good on her promises."

She held her breath, her mind wasn't working, and she wasn't sure what she was supposed to be thinking when Killian pulled out a sword beside her and pointed it at her son! Before she could cry out or step forward or even think of what to do, Rumple stepped forward and lowered the sword away from their son's neck.

"And what about the promise of a mother to a son?" he questioned.

"Careful of your emotions, Rumple," the Black Fairy insisted. "They run strongly in our family." She gave a small chuckled then looked back to the fairy who was at her mercy. "As Blue's about to find out." Without further threat, she waved her hand, and in a thick fog of black smoke, she vanished taking the Blue Fairy and any answers she may have possessed, with her.

They all staggered for a second, looking around, trying to figure out what had happened and how it had happened so quickly!

"I'm sorry I had to do this, father." Gideon. They all turned toward Gideon, and she realized with tears in her eyes that he was still there. Looking right at Rumpelstiltskin. Oh, what would she do to keep him there with her? With them? "Good-bye!"

But something happened as Gideon raised his hand to vanish as his captor had. Rumple took him by the wrist. She felt a shimmer of magic followed by a flash of gold and instead of disappearing in a cloud of smoke Gideon stared at the grip Rumple maintained on his arm in confusion.

"I'm afraid your magic, is no longer of any use to you," Rumple hissed taking a step closer. Gideon's eyes widened first with the recognition she was still hoping for, then with fear. "It's time to get your heart back!"

* * *

 **OMG David isn't David...dun, dun, dun! Yeah, so most of you got the hint a few chapters ago that when they were in the cavern and David was eager to go with Belle it wasn't David who wanted to go with her but rather Gideon. It's, of course, difficult to tell when the switch got made, because they never really gave us those in between scenes but I figured it was best to do it as early as possible just to make Emma's comment about her parents still being at home make sense.**

 **Big thank yous to Fox24, Grace5231973, and Rumbellefan for your reviews on the last chapter. Alas, another short one, but there wasn't much to be done for these two chapters as they were both "seen" chapters. I did my best on them, but I can only give you what they give me. The next will be a bit better. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	56. Their Son's Muzzle

Everything happened so quickly that it took her a moment to get a handle on all of it. Blue was awake, but the Black Fairy had kidnapped her, taken her away to a place she didn't know. A place that Gideon might.

Gideon.

Gideon was still here. Of all the miraculous things…she didn't know how long his father had been carrying that old cuff with him, waiting for the opportune time to fit it onto their son, but now that he had it on his magic was nothing to him. He was safe with them, here in the shop, away from the Black Fairy.

Tears touched her eyes and she moved to reach out for her boy. She cried out his name as she held her arms open only to feel Rumple's arm reach out and keep her from him, holding her at a distance.

"Belle don't!" Rumple warned still looking him over carefully. "His magic may be of no use, but she could still order him to hurt you without it."

"Or come back for him herself!" Killian added from the corner.

She shook her head in disbelief. No, if the Black Fairy threatened her, Gideon would fight it just as Rumple had fought orders to hurt her from those who possessed the dagger. Gideon had left a flower behind! He was good!

"He won't," she breathed. "He's my son!"

"Tie me!" Gideon shouted looking from her to Rumple and then Emma and finally Killian. He was holding the bracelet on his arm himself now as if it was a bleeding wound he was trying to contain. "Bind me so I can't put you all at risk! So I can't hurt you!"

"And put an Entrapment Potion around him, like we did for Zelena the first time we caught her," Emma added.

An Entrapment Potion…that was something she hadn't seen since they used one on Zelena! It was meant to be used as a reverse protection spell, allowing something into its borders then keeping that something trapped there. The thought of it made her sick.

"We are not using my son as bait for her!" she yelled over her shoulder at Emma.

"Do it!" Gideon's voice came back, loud and strong. He had been looking at her, but only until she looked back. Then his eyes were quick to move off of her and onto Rumple. "Father, you know she's bound to discover what you've done in a matter of seconds, if I can help aid in her defeat, please let me do it!" he begged. His hands were shaking. All the rest of the room was so still she could hear a pin drop, and Gideon's hands were shaking; the one clenched over the bracelet was so tight she could make out all the bones in his hand. Everyone held their breath and finally, in the silence, he looked over at her.

"Please," he plead once more.

For a second she was tempted to give in, to grant him what he wanted so easily but when she thought of his hands bound helplessly behind his back…

She stepped forward, not moving ahead of her husband, just making it easier to see her boy. "There are other ways to help, Gideon."

"No easy ones," he responded easily. "Please!"

Finally, as if they'd all come to some kind of silent agreement, they all moved. Rumple moved to find a chair, and Emma reached for some rope that was laying around.

"We can't use an entrapment potion," Rumple commented moving back out to the main room. The rest of them followed, and Gideon sat down in the chair that he placed in front of the glass cabinets. "We don't have her blood, and we couldn't use mine without trapping Gideon as well."

"Then think of something Gold…" Emma growled.

"The gold dust…"

The words that came from her mouth surprised even her. The fact that she was coming up with something now seemed impossible, the thought that she might go on and explain what she'd thought seemed improbable…but the begging look on her son's face told her she had to. She hoped, truly, that the Black Fairy wasn't using his heart to produce that look.

"The dust from the urn, the one that brought Elsa, do you have any left?" she questioned looking over her shoulder.

Of course he did. She knew it even before the nod he gave her that was probably invisible to everyone else. She'd never known him to use rare magical items up completely, not if he could come up for some reason they would be needed in the future. And she knew, she had the proof, the night that they'd discovered the dust he'd been "out". He'd only taken a small vial from the barn that day, what were the chances that he'd gone back to salvage the rest of it?

"You said the dust neutralizes magic, could we use it now?" He gave another nod and shuffled back into the back room.

"There!" Hook declared backing away from the chair. Rope tied into fresh knots bound each of his wrists to the arms of it. He was tall and looked uncomfortable, but somehow grateful as well. "Those knots have been good enough for many a fine pirate; they'll be good enough for you too."

"Hook!" Emma called from across the room. "I need you to go to my parent's apartment, check to make sure they are alright, then go look for the wand."

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather do that yourself?" he questioned.

Emma shook her head. "I'm needed here."

Killian sighed. "And…if your parents aren't in their home-"

"That's a possibility I'd rather not explore until I have to," she muttered quickly. Of course, in the midst of all of this, she hadn't even thought to stop and consider that if Gideon and the Black Fairy were pretending to be Snow and David, then where were the real ones.

"Gideon…do you know where they are?" she questioned looking down at them.

He opened his mouth but very quickly snapped it closed. His jaw clenched, his eyes screwed up.

"Gideon are they alright?"

He shifted his gaze, looking away from her. She didn't understand.

Rumple moved smoothly back into the room as Hook left, a vile of the gold dust was in his hand. He stopped before Gideon and showed it to him.

"This dust came from a magical urn with the power to neutralize and trap magic. It won't hurt you, but if the Black Fairy should come for you, she'll be unable to use her magic to take you away again. And you'll be free as soon as the circle is broken, or the dust runs its course."

Gideon looked up at him and gave a small nod. Rumple began an unnerving pace around him, letting the dust fall to the ground around the chair. It was barely big enough for Gideon. If the Black Fairy did come, then things would get uncomfortable quickly. And yet…

Time had passed since he'd made his declaration that she would figure out what happened in seconds and yet there was no Black Fairy. Did she simply not care enough to return? Or did she want Gideon here? Should they have moved him? To say she was confused was not a powerful enough word.

"Gideon," she breathed as Rumple finished his circle. "Please…do you know where she is? Where she's taken Blue?"

He knew. He had his father's eyes , nd despite the fact that she'd maybe spent twenty minutes with him since he was born, she knew those eyes. But his mouth didn't produce words. It opened, just as it had before, but then he quickly clenched it together again. She couldn't understand it.

"Gideon, Gideon please!"

But instead of an answer what she got was a ring tone, behind her. She looked behind her and saw Emma reaching for her cell phone.

"Hold on, I've got to take this," she muttered before stepping outside. She turned back to Gideon, considering for the first time that it might have been Emma herself! Maybe he didn't want to talk with her in the room, with all the bad blood between them! But now it was just them. Their family!

"Gideon…I told you there are other ways to help and there are. One of those ways is to talk to us. The Black Fairy wants the Blue Fairy away from us for a reason. Tell us why so we can fight her. We can save the children together!"

Her speech was worth nothing to him. Or maybe it was…she couldn't tell. It looked like it was, judging by the look in his eyes. But he still wasn't saying anything, just giving her that same look!

"Belle," Rumple muttered behind her, putting a hand on her elbow. "She's controlling him," he growled. "She's forbidden him to talk to us."

She was still controlling him! Because she still had his heart! Wasn't that an easy solution?

"Gideon," she knelt down beside him and took the hand that was bound to the chair as Rumple stalked off into the back again. "I know you can talk to us, you did it before. Can you tell us where your heart is? That will put a stop to all of this!"

His face didn't screw up this time like it had the others. He just looked at her, his breaths coming in short even bursts, his eyes sad.

"Gideon, please," she plead kneeling down beside him and grasping his hand. "Tell me where the Black Fairy is keeping your heart."

Gideon looked away. Unwilling or unable to bear even that much to her and yet...

"You've resisted her before," she urged.

"And she punished me for it," he stated with a shaking voice. There. He could talk to them, but her heart had never broken as it had with his voice, never wanted to leap from her chest or hold on to anyone the way she wanted to with Gideon just to undo whatever she'd done to him. His face was contorted, his fingers tight as his form balled itself up as best it could given how it was tied to the chair. "She ordered me to feel this…pain, if I resisted again," he explained through a tight jaw.

His teeth were grinding together again with every word. Pain. It wasn't just emotional pain it was physical. Even to tell her that much had hurt him. Her eyes filled with tears and she couldn't bear to ask him anymore questions. She couldn't bear to cause him any more of this.

She felt the touch of fingertips tapping at her shoulder. "Belle, stop," Rumple ordered.

"I'm sorry," she cried. She'd never felt two words more in her life than she felt those. "Are you okay?" she questioned, rising up again wondering if she could get him water or food or anything to fix it. The pain seemed to leave his face the more she rose to her feet. That was something at least.

* * *

 **I can only give you what they give me, fortunately, this chapter presented an opportunity to give you a little more than we got in the series. Because, in my mind, Emma was so quick to transfer her anger and frustration from Gideon to the Black Fairy (appropriately), I felt it was very important for him, in those in-between moments, to insist that they take in prisoner (for lack of a better word). I think, for the most part that I kept everyone in character in this chapter, I'm never sure just how good I get Emma and Killian (lucky me I had the opportunity to dismiss both of them to set up the scene) but I'm hoping the bit they are in here, their actions and speech are both in character.**

 **Thank you Grace5231973, Fox24, and Rumbellefan for your reviews on the last chapter. I'm so thrilled to know you are still liking this fiction, and I was so pleased to get to share a little bit of info with a couple of you about the Chronicles! Small world! I hope you are looking forward to that series just as much as these because every chapter I write I'm a little bit more excited. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	57. Mister Sandman

Behind her, but not nearly loud enough to distract her from the face of her son, she heard the bell to the shop ring. "That was my parents!" Emma declared coming back inside, the phone still clutched in her hand. "They're looking for the other half of Blue's wand, any luck in here?" she questioned.

Rumple turned away and immediately set something on the glass case, but Emma didn't seem to notice as she only stared at Gideon in the chair. Snow and David were fine. Relief flooded through her. She may be angry with them, but she had no wish for either of them to be harmed especially by the Black Fairy, or Gideon, at her orders. Things might be bad between them at the moment, but if she could heal things with Rumple, then maybe, one day-

"Not yet, we'd just begun," Rumple answered for her, bringing her out of the mire of her thoughts.

"Can we hurry it up?" Emma questioned. "Once my folks find that wand I'm gonna go after the Black Fairy."

Rumple had just pulled a small vile from the box he'd brought from the back, he was working at something, but at Emma's comments he stopped to look over his shoulder at her, clearly just as irritated at her as she was for her words. They'd warned her, tried to tell her that something like this could happen and she hadn't listened. Now it had happened, and they were the ones who weren't working fast enough? She understood that Emma was suddenly coming to realize the sense of urgency they'd been living with for the last week or so, but it certainly wouldn't kill her to practice a little more tact. But before she could say anything or chastise Emma for her childishness over the last few days, Rumple turned away from Emma and looked back at her. He physically turned his back on Emma, and she could see as he looked her over that he was pretending with everything he had in him that she wasn't there at the moment. What exactly was he planning?

"Belle, I may have a way to speak to our son." Her eyes widened as she took a step forward and all thoughts of Emma died. He could talk to Gideon? Talk to him without causing him pain? How? "But I need something from you first…your trust. Do you trust me, Belle?"

Inwardly, she had the urge to groan and roll her eyes. Oh, she had been all too willing to believe any plan he offered her until she heard those words. It seemed he only ever asked them when he was about to do something truly risky or stupid. Sometimes both. It had been one thing to give him her trust over this last week for other things, to let him go after Gideon, to let him talk to the Black Fairy, but something like this…no. It was bad if he was going to demand that trust before even telling her what the plan was! Everything in her screamed that this was going to be a mistake, every warning bell was chiming, every nerve was prickling. It was a learned defense she certainly hadn't had when they'd started their relationship. It was always after she gave him trust that he broke it. But when it came to their son…

Things were different with their son. It wasn't about the pair of them it was about the three of them and arguably only about one of them. Gideon. He'd done so well this week. And as much as she was surprised to admit it, he'd earned some of that trust back, if only she was willing to give it.

"I trust you'll do what's right for him. What's right for our family," she admitted, unable to hear her own words over the pounding of her heart. Nothing inside of her liked saying those words and the truth was that they made her want to cry because she'd been conditioned to expect the worst when she heard them. If, or when, this failed she was once again going to have no one to blame but herself for giving what her mind knew she shouldn't but her heart wanted to believe it still could. Her soul wanted to believe that he still belonged to them in some way. She swallowed back tears and forced her head high.

"And I need you to watch over us while we're gone," he explained stepping forward and taking her hand in his own, moving his fingers along her wrists so that his fingers lightly touched the bare skin of her arms beneath her coat. She fought to breathe as she considered those words and felt fear rise up over her. It was a struggle to hold on to the feel of his hand, and she wondered if he'd done it so that she'd focus, so that she'd have something to hold on to.

"Gone?" Emma asked for her, breaking the private bubbled they'd created specifically to shut her out. "What the hell is that?" she questioned looking at the vile still in his hand.

He squeezed her hand before letting go and walking away from both of them and toward their son, helpless to move away from him.

"The sands of Morpheus," he answered. She felt her jaw drop as she realized what was about to happen. They weren't "going" anywhere, at least not their bodies anyway. He was going to try to talk to Gideon has he had talked to her when she was in her sleeping curse.

"Father…" Gideon wondered aloud, sitting as far back in his chair as he could, looking as though he was afraid the sands might burn him. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to the only place I can speak to you, Gideon," Rumple answered. "Your dream realm."

Without another word, he threw the dust at his son, and she watched as his eyes closed immediately and his chin dropped to his chest which still rose and fell deep and sedately. Alive, clearly. Just asleep.

"Oh, and Miss Swan…you get to come with us too!"

Before she could argue or run or do anything, he'd thrown a handful at Emma, and she collapsed to the ground with a loud thud that made her want to check for broken bones! Gideon and Emma both asleep, that only left…

She looked up as she saw Rumple dump more of the sand into the palm of his hand, but instead of tossing it immediately he turned to her first. He was holding his breath, looking at her as if he expected her to spew some kind of hatred at this plan of his. But before she even had the chance to beg him to take her with him so that she could speak with their son he threw the handful of dust at himself and sank to his knees before the rest of his body hit the ground ungracefully, deeper in slumber than she'd ever seen him.

* * *

 **Sometimes I plan the redos and other times they are given to me so beautifully I get to plan around them. In the beginning of this fiction there were moments that both of them got to say "I don't trust you" in some way. A few chapters ago we got Belle's redemption, a moment when she urged Rumple to trust her and he did so. This time he gets his redemption. He gets to say "do you trust me" and she gets to say "yes I do". Now, in both Rumple and Belle's situation I was careful not to give a 100% "Yes, I trust you with all I have" (in this case the scene was provided for me). That is because I didn't want to move them on too fast. After everything that happened prior to Gideon, I felt that moving them on too fast, despite the events of this fiction, was too unrealistic and totally out of character. But all I wanted to show in these acts was progress. They're getting back to a good place slowly.**

 **Thank you Grace5231973 and Fox24 for the reviews you left me on the last chapter. And, while I'm at it, an apology. I really hate this chapter. It's choppy. It was simply one of those chapters that just didn't translate well from screen to page. I did my best with it, but I fear it's not good enough. Peace and Happy Reading.**


	58. The Other Side of the Tale

They were nothing but bodies. Bodies strew about the ground where they had dropped. Emma had fallen onto her side and was currently curled into a little ball, Rumple had fallen onto his belly, his head to the left, his mouth slightly open. He, like Gideon and Emma, was still breathing. She could see all of their chests rising and falling, or in Rumple's case his back, and every now and then one of them twitched, but otherwise it was so still in the shop it gave her chills.

"Watch over them" he'd told her…well, she was watching over them, but without any warning that was about all she was capable of doing?! If the Black Fairy showed up now, she'd be helpless to stop her from harming any of them, Gideon, safe in his circle, the obvious exception. Of course there were little things hidden all over the shop, or at least she assumed they were still there from the time Cruella and Ursula were back in town, somehow she doubted those would do anything more than slow her down.

Realizing there was nothing else to do she knelt down next to Emma, the lighter of the two on her floor and easily rolled her over onto her back, jumping only when she let out a loud snore. Laid out as best as she could get her she looked next to Rumple. She shoved once, she shoved twice, but his weight was settled onto his chest and she was certain that there was no chance she was going to get him rolled over.

So she sat. By his side. Since it was no use attempting to move him she ran her fingers over his skull, through the short hair that had once been so long and silky she could lose herself in it. She supposed that it still had the same feeling it used to. It was still soft. It didn't cascade over her fingers the way it once had; it was different. But maybe it wasn't as horrible as she'd originally thought. It didn't cover his eyes or any of his face when he slept now. She could gaze right down at his sleeping face and see the look of peace that she very rarely got to see.

Every now and then between strokes she rose and checked the pulse on all three of them, though she knew that it was a silly thing to do. Really, all it did was provide her body with busy work; something to pass the time as she waited since sweeping was obviously out of the question. And waited. And waited. And-

"What the hell happened in here!"

Regina had come into the room so quickly the bell that hung over the door hadn't provided her much warning for the outburst. She scrambled to her feet as quickly as she could.

"Regina!" she breathed. "I can explain! It was Rumple he…he used the dream dust from Morpheus to take them all to the dream realm."

Regina looked around at the bodies on the floor. "Why the hell would they do that?!"

"Gideon. The Black Fairy placed a curse on his heart that he would feel pain if he tried to talk to us so Rumple took him into the Dream World to talk to him." At least she thought that was the general idea. He hadn't exactly discussed what he was thinking with her before he'd done this…

"And Emma?" she exclaimed with confusion, looking over the body at her feet.

She smirked. She hadn't really thought about a good way to explain that little bit. "Rumple didn't exactly give her a chance to argue," she muttered.

Regina didn't argue either, simply nodded at what she was presented with. She'd known Rumple long enough not to be surprised by that fact.

"I tried to move them into a more comfortable position the best I could but-"

As Regina rose she threw her hand into the air. There were two great clouds of magic and when they passed Emma was laid out on a glass case and Rumple was slouched over in a chair much like Gideon was. Regina was quick to go and inspect Emma, for what she wasn't sure, but she turned her back on it immediately and knelt down next to her husband. For a moment she let her palm cup his check, she let her thumb move over the contours of his face, the bones beneath his skin. She couldn't say that he would be more comfortable this way, but at least the red mark that was left on his cheek from laying on the floor would disappear.

"When does he plan to bring them out of this?" Regina questioned from the other side of the room, interrupting her thoughts and making her get to her feet once more. "We need Emma!"

She shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself as she shook her head and moved to check on Gideon. Still just as he was.

"He didn't even really tell me of his plan before he did it, I have no idea what it is that will bring them around. But I can't see Rumple leaving me here for too long with his mother out there."

It was only when she turned to face Regina that she noticed she had something in her hand. More than one thing. Twigs. Wand halves?!

"Is…is that it?" she questioned looking at her hands.

Regina nodded and opened her palm for her to see. "This is it," she confirmed.

But there was nothing really special about what she was seeing. It didn't exactly look like the wands that she had known. This really did look like two halves of a branch that had fallen off of a tree. It was rough and looked as though it might crumble into splinters at any moment.

"Doesn't look much like a wand," she commented.

"Well, no. Fairy magic forms wands, but mending them takes a powerful bit of magic I couldn't possess without careful planning," Regina explained before looking over her shoulder at Emma. "I'm hoping that as the Savior Emma can mend it."

She nodded, following her logic, but there was still something that she didn't quite understand and as long as she and Regina were stuck here alone and the others were asleep…

"What's so special about this anyway?" she questioned. "Why did Killian want it so bad?"

"Well, supposedly, this is the wand that sent the Black Fairy into the other realm."

She looked up at her and stared with wide eyes. That was an astounding claim. One that she wasn't entirely sure had merit. One that she knew for a fact they didn't have time to be wrong about. If this was true, the wand could prove to be overwhelmingly helpful. If not it could lead to a number of unfortunate events, not the least of which was death. How had this come up exactly? And how had Killian ended up with one half of that wand?

"Who told you this?" she questioned skeptically.

Regina sighed. "It's a long story, but from what I've gathered, after Gideon sent Hook away he somehow wound up back in Neverland. While he was there he ran into some Lost Boys-"

"Lost Boys…" she breathed. "I thought they all came back here with you, and Peter."

"So did I, but apparently there are more there, and they weren't the friendly sort. I can't say I'm surprised, that island has more secrets than any of the other realms I've been to. And one of those secrets was a woman named Tiger Lily. She's someone who lives on the island, someone Hook knew. She saved him from an attack and helped him get back here using his shadow-"

"I thought that the flower got Killian home," she interrupted again.

Regina nodded. "It did. I said it was a long story. The shortest version that answers your question though is that Tiger Lily gave this half-" she held up the fat piece of wood before her "-to Hook before he left and she told him its history and that it would help us now."

She'd hoped that in asking her questions, she might feel a little more reassured. The truth was that nothing Regina said now made her feel that. She wasn't saying that Killian was lying, obviously, he wasn't as he'd come back with this piece of wood! No, this Tiger Lily person was real, but what they didn't know was how trustworthy she was. If she was in Neverland why hadn't the others met her? How did she know about the Black Fairy? How did she know about the wand and end up with half of it? How did they know if they could trust her?

"Regina, do you really think-"

She was interrupted by a noise behind. Rumple was awake.

* * *

 **Another short chapter, but totally necessary in my mind. I was actually asked not too long ago if Belle would find out where Hook had been and the answer was more or less "in good time". Like I've mentioned before, I can't have characters just willy nilly going off to other characters and saying "hey you missed this, k bye!" I wanted to wait for the right time. This seemed like a good time for a number of reasons. First and foremost (you may or may not believe this), the position of the bodies. Yeah...they did that thing again, where they add furniture to suit the scene but don't consider that little Belle probably couldn't lift a body (they did it when Rumple first went comotose in season 5 with the recliner). I mean really, Rumple throws the dust and Emma and Rumple drop to the ground, but the next time we see them Emma is laid out on the cabinets and Rumple is propped up in a chair. I'm supposed to believe that Belle, short, little, petite Belle, lifted Emma off the floor and onto the cabinet? And moved Rumple, who I'm sure is twice her weight into a chair? In those heels?! Yeah, I don't think so. Which opened the door for Regina to stop by, which allowed her to use her magic (which was how I solved it in season 5), which allowed them some time to talk about the wand halves and where Hook was and...ta-da!**

 **Thank you Grace5231973, Fox24, and Paintbrush123 for your reviews. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. I'm sorry for the short filler chapters, it's just how the scenes worked out. But, on a happier note, not too long from now we begin some truly awesome chapters! Some are short, it's true, but by the end we are getting into some long chapters that really unite this family before moving onto 6x20! I hope your excited for it. Hard to believe there isn't much time left! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	59. A Savior's Farewell

Rumple was awake, and from the breaths that came after it, she assumed Emma was too. Gideon was quieter than either of them, hardly giving any indication he'd awoken at all; he still looked unhappy and in pain and she wondered if it had worked at all. She and Regina, wand in hand, walked closer to the three slumbering bodies.

"Now that naptime's over…it's time for battle," she declared handing the wand to Emma. She looked at it with wide eyes.

"You found the other half?" she blanched.

"Indeed I did, now let's go de-wing that bat."

"Actually…" Emma paused, swaying a bit before looking up at Regina. "I don't think I'm the Savior that's supposed to fight the Black Fairy."

She stared at her with wide eyes. She couldn't help her shock. Not long ago Emma was hurrying them along so that she could get this over with! Now she was hesitating. She wanted to find someone else to do her job?

Finally, Emma took her eyes off of Regina and she followed them to Rumple, who was sitting in his chair. He alone seemed unsurprised at Emma's comment because he seemed too deep in thought to have heard it. His hand was at his mouth, his eyes were wide…was he shaking?

"Gold!" Emma breathed finally pulling him away so that he looked up at her. "This is on you."

Him?

"Wait!" Regina blanched beside her. "Gold is the Savior?!"

She stared at him, begging him to look her in the eye so she could assess what had just been said. Emma didn't want to fight the Black Fairy because Rumple was the Savior that was meant to do it? What was she talking about? What was going on? What happened in there? What had they learned?

"Rumple is this true?" she asked of him.

He was quiet for a long while, avoiding not just her gaze but everyone's gaze. "Yes, it's true," he finally whispered.

She felt as though the breath had been knocked out of her.

A savior!

Rumple?!

And…he was supposed to defeat the Black Fairy? Not Emma?

The Dark One, using Dark magic for Light purposes! The shock began to wear as she recalled Merlin's prophecy. He was the one! The one Merlin said would be able to use the curse for good. Not Emma or Hook…her Rumpelstiltskin. It was surprising and yet when she thought about it…there was nothing to be surprised by. This was what she'd been seeing in him from the beginning, this was what she had known to be true long before Merlin ever made his prophecy. He was a good man. It was his destiny to prove it to everyone and not just her.

And yet it wasn't just shock that he wore on his face, it was utter sadness and disappointment. She understood sadness, it was his mother after all. Evil as she was, she knew that there were bound to be sometimes there that made it difficult. But disappointment? She couldn't fathom why that emotion was on his face. He was sinking into the mire of some kind of thought, an unvoiced one that she couldn't understand and wouldn't if she didn't pull him free.

"All these years!" she breathed sinking to her knees and grabbing his hand in a desperate attempt to get him to look at her. "All these years I've known there was a good man behind the beast," she held his hand tighter and gave it a small shake, and finally he looked up and into her eyes. "And now you know it too!"

But he didn't seem assured or comforted in her words and shook his head. "I don't know what I know," he whispered back, the grip on her hand became bone-crunching, like he was afraid of what would happen if he let it go.

She didn't know what he knew either. She didn't know what had happened or why, and she was dying to ask those questions, away from Emma and Regina and even Gideon because she knew that alone he would answer them for her, but not in front of the others. But before she could tell him to come with her or make up some excuse to go into the back room, his gaze shifted to Regina, and he rose from his chair taking the old wand in his hand.

"But I must do this," he stated, staring at it as though it was a crystal ball that contained his fate.

"Let me help you," Gideon insisted speaking for the first time. "I can-"

"No," Rumple refused. "I've put you in enough danger." She watched as she turned the wand over in his hands and before her eyes it glowed purple, the raw and rough material becoming smooth and perfect. It took powerful magic to mend broken Fairy wands, he just had. "I think it's best I face my mother alone," he whispered looking it over.

Alone…she felt her eyes fill with tears and suddenly had the sensation that she was on a fast moving train and just hadn't known it until now. Now he knew the truth and with the knowledge and the proper weapon in his hand, not to mention their son's heart at stake, there was no holding him back. There was no reason to hold him back. The mystery was solved, but she hadn't realized that he meant to do this now until she saw the look of determination on his face. She understood it, there was no reason to delay, but it was just happening so fast, too fast.

"I'll come with you!" she insisted, stepping forward and swallowing back her tears. "We'll go together, as a family!"

"Gold…Saviors don't always have to walk alone," Emma muttered matter-of-factly. "Being with people you love can make you stronger."

"Not for this," Rumple argued before glancing over at the chair his son was bound to. "Gideon must remain until I've his heart back and I won't drag you or anyone else along to witness this," he muttered glancing over his shoulder at where she stood. "I've decided. It seems it's finally time to end all this."

And then he left. Just like that. He had turned without another word and left the shop. He was gone.

"Regina, where are my parents, I'd like to-"

"You're just going to leave him to do this?!" she shouted at Emma. "What happened in there?!"

"Belle, he doesn't want help!" she fought back. "Since when has he ever accepted what he doesn't want?"

"When has someone not wanting your help ever stopped you from helping them?!"

"Since it was Gold. He's a Savior and the Dark One; he knows what he has to do. Do you really think he wants anyone around for that?"

And the weight of that truth seemed to crash down over her numbing her senses to everything outside of that knowledge. The chime of the bell was distant. The voices of Emma and Regina were muffled. The shop was black in a haze, and she could make out the white of her hand still risen over the air where his shoulder had been only seconds ago.

Just like that he'd gone to his mother to fight a battle.

It wasn't that simple. She wasn't about to let it be that simple.

Energy flooded into her veins and muscles, clearing her vision and propelling her forward out the door to the shop. He hadn't gone far. Only up the street a little as he held the wand in his hand doing some kind of spell with it that he wouldn't get the chance to finish. At least not now.

"Rumple wait!"

His eyes widened in confusion when he saw her walking toward him. She took the last few steps at a run, and the last was more of a jump, throwing her arms around his neck and forcing her mouth onto his. He didn't pull away. He kissed her back greedily and passionately as if they were alone in their bedroom. In broad daylight, this was unlike them. It was brazen. It was different. And yet it was just as it always had been. A sensation mixed of happiness and relief and lust and love shot through her body. Her fingers groped for the long hair they were accustomed to feeling when she kissed him like this, but she came to appreciate the sensation of the short prickly hair against her fingertips. It ended quickly, just as she felt her feet touch the ground again. She hadn't realized he'd lifted her off the ground.

There were a million things to say. There were thousands of questions to be asked, and a hundred apologies that still needed to be spoken between the two of them. But only one thing that came to mind.

"You are strong," she muttered, her breath still ragged as his forehead rested against his own. "You are mine and this time…this time when you come back, I'll be here. At the well, at home, at the shop, wherever you need me to be. We'll figure out the future…together."

Her fingers were getting sore. The air was cold, and they were clenched around the back of his coat, but the space between them, where their eyes met was still hot with their mingled breath when he turned his head up to kiss her forehead.

"Stay at the shop," he insisted. "Keep Gideon safe. I need to protect my family."

She nodded, then after uncurling her fingers and untangling themselves, she stood back and watched him disappear in a cloud of smoke.

* * *

 **So the kiss at the end of this was the surprise for you that I hinted at a few chapters ago because, truly, it was a surprise for me! True story, when I started this fiction I was very certain, 100%, that I didn't want anything physical to happen between the two of them until Moments Grown. This was supposed to be the fiction they rebuilt their relationship, Grown was where they were to rebuild their intimacy...and then that kiss happened. I had her run after him in the street, my fingers typed the words that they kissed, and I stared in the screen in absolute shock because they weren't supposed to be there yet! But I couldn't get rid of it. The more I read it the more it fit. Even before I had more or less declared "no touching" I had always meant this chapter to be the "redo" chapter for the well, and in thinking about it, if she had to do it again, after knowing what went down the first time, I didn't think something like this was beyond the realm of possibility. That being said, are they ready for this level yet? No. They are not. So, it's your one and only physical breadcrumb until Moments Grown. Enjoy it for what it is.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973, Fox24, and Paintbrush123 for your reviews on the previous chapter. I do hope that you will like this chapter and where I went with it. I hope you'll think it's acceptable and won't think that it was too out of line. Best of all, if you like it, I hope it was a good kind of surprise! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	60. What She Really Wanted

Her mind had always been her enemy, but she didn't think she'd ever panicked this much in her life. Not when Samuel went off to fight the war, not when she been engaged to Gaston, not when she'd found that bloody Gauntlet hidden in the shop, and not when she'd cast the only man she had ever truly loved over the town line. She hated waiting. But this was unbearable.

Emma left not long after she returned to the shop telling her or Regina she'd be at Granny's with her family when all of this was done, but Regina remained. Out of worry or curiosity, she wasn't sure, but she was grateful for the body in the room, especially considering that Regina had magic. Gideon might have been safe here, but she figured that if something went wrong, she and Gideon would need a defense neither of them could provide for themselves and Regina…oddly enough, at the moment if she had to choose between Regina and Emma, she wanted Regina. Not to mention that Regina was a clear thinker in times of crisis, for the most part at least. As she paced the shop, wondering what she could do, if anything, Regina was the one to look at Gideon and ask "what happened in the dream?"

"It was Father's dream," he answered immediately. He gave the information willingly and without hesitation or the slightest mark of pain on his face. The Black Fairy couldn't forbid him to speak on something she didn't know he knew. That was a loophole she was thankful for. "We'd gone back to the landscape of his childhood, the place he was born. He found his baby blanket."

"And," Regina prompted.

"With Emma's encouragement and concentration we ended up in a memory of some kind. I don't quite understand the magic. We were in the Sacred Vault of the Fairies. There were two of them there. One dressed in Red who my mother called Tiger Lily and my mother, dressed in yellow. I…I didn't know there was a time she wasn't the Black Fairy. She was…kinder in the beginning, untainted by evil."

She could feel Regina's eyes on her after he'd said the name "Tiger Lily", she could feel her trying to make eye contact with her, but she continued along her path like a caged tiger, wearing her footprints into the shop floor as she paced. She understood the significance, and her heart mourned each time her son called that wretched woman "my mother" but her mind was too far away, contaminated with too much worry for the present to show that kind of caring for the past.

"Fairies are creatures of Light," Regina finally answered. It makes sense that she wasn't always Dark…what else did you see?"

"My mother was crafting a spell, a curse. This curse, the Dark Curse. She created it…she created it to save my father. She said something about a child destined to destroy him. Tiger Lily, Father's Fairy Godmother, seemed complacent in her creation at first but when she realized what it was, she stopped my mother from casting it. She said it had to be that Father was destined to die so that others could live as was the fate of all Saviors."

She stopped pacing. She hadn't thought of that. She hadn't even considered the fact that not long ago there had been panic because Emma had learned that all Savior's met their end eventually. But Rumple…he was the Dark One he couldn't die, not unless…not unless someone got their hands on the dagger and killed him, like the Black Fairy had earlier. She could take the dagger! She could get it and-

She hadn't used it earlier, but if he was going after her, if he was threatening her life and existence now then would she? And what would the Black Fairy be if she took on the Curse of the Dark One?

"Who was the child?" she managed to ask her son. "Who was supposed to destroy him?"

"It wasn't a child. The Black Fairy thought it was, but it wasn't. When my mother pulled the heart from the Red Fairy she changed, she became Dark…she became the Black Fairy. And the Tiger Lily she said something that sounded like she was quoting something she'd read once."

"And that was?" Regina prompted for him.

"Something about the Great Evil having the sign of a crescent, and when my mother looked at her wrist she stated that Evil hadn't been born that winter, it had been made."

She went back to pacing as she began to put the pieces of the story together in her mind. Regina spoke her thoughts aloud.

"So by creating the curse, the Black Fairy thought she was protecting Rumple from a Great Evil that was born that winter who bore the sign of the crescent…but the Evil was actually her?"

"The others couldn't have seen it from where they stood, but I've lived in closer proximity to her than I've wanted my entire life. She bears a scar on her right wrist in the shape of a crescent. She keeps it covered at all times as if she is even afraid to look at it."

She walked on. And on and on and on because it was getting harder and harder to breathe and she was certain that if she stopped walking then she wouldn't be able to support her weight. Rumple had known all of this when he went off to face his mother. At the time they were made prophecies never made sense, it was always only afterward that they did. He was destined to save children, the same children that Gideon had been trying to save. A Great Evil was the Black Fairy. Ironically he'd even been instrumental in casting the very curse his mother had created to protect him…

She really couldn't breathe as everything from the last year and a half of her life began to add up in ways she didn't know it could. Things that seemed unrelated suddenly seemed identical. Would Rumple come back? Could he? The prophecy said he was destined to die but he couldn't as the Dark One, not unless his mother took the dagger and killed him herself. But prophecies weren't always literal, sometimes they meant something else entirely. But of course, sometimes they were literal. The idea that Henry would be his undoing, she'd always thought it meant something figurative, and in the end, Rumple had met his fate, he'd died and gone to the Underworld and came back a changed man, not for the better that time. What effect was something like this going to have on him?

"Pacing isn't going to help," Regina finally drawled casting her an irritated glance.

"It helps me," she snapped. "It helps me think."

"Mother…there is nothing to be done." She glanced over when she realized that Gideon was talking to her. That was enough to get her to stop walking back and forth. She wasn't used to going by the name "mother". "Father is the Savior, and the Black Fairy is the Great Evil. He's destined to destroy her and save the children. When he destroys her, he will break the Black Fairy's magic, and her hold on that realm. Everything she created will be undone, and all will be well."

He was speaking, but she could think of an argument to counter every good thing he told her. And all she saw when she looked into the eyes of her beloved son, of the son she thought she wanted more than anything in the world this week were eyes that belonged to his father, and thus to his brother as well. She hadn't noticed before now, hadn't had time or the ability to notice, but it was just like looking at Neal.

"You are so like Bae," she breathed wrapping her arms around herself as she came to a different revelation. She wanted Gideon. She wanted Rumple too. And she certainly wished beyond all measure that she could have Neal back. But she didn't want any one of them more than the other or more than anything. What she really wanted more than anything was all of them, together. What she wanted more than anything was her family.

* * *

 **Filler chapter. I had to get Belle to learn about what happened in the Dream World and with Gideon there I found a loophole that allowed her to do that. I also had to have her kind of finish the process of the thinking she began in this episode and this was a good chapter to do it in since she was waiting for Rumple again. As for Regina, she was the only character that I wasn't really sure what to do with for a long time, since she wasn't at Granny's with the rest of them after Rumple "defeated" his mother. I think at some point I had her going home, but really when I started writing this I realized that out of everyone, she probably would have stayed. 6A aside, we have to remember the relationship that was built between Regina and Rumple was one not only of teacher and student but also sort of a father/daughter thing and the relationship carried out between the Evil Queen and Rumple didn't happen to Regina. I thought that having her stay and wait for her mentor to return to be sure he was safe was a reaffirmation of that and, in the end, very in character for her. I hope you'll feel the same.**

 **Thank you Fox24, Judymulder, Rumbellefan, and Grace5231973 for your comments on the last chapter. I'm glad that you enjoyed that little surprise! I hope that you'll enjoy the three chapters that follow, the finishing out of 6x19. You'll have to forgive me, I had intended for a lot of the next chapters to be one chapter but it kept growing and growing so that they needed to be three separate chapters. Up next, a seen chapter we all know is coming! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	61. Rebirth of a Family

She wanted all of them. Every last one. She wanted Bae and Gideon and Rumple…but she knew that it was impossible, the only time she'd see the first of her sons again was in death. And so, with that being the case she knew what she needed, and that was the family she had within her grasp now. She wanted all of them, but she needed Gideon and Rumple. She could settle for the two of them and yet settling wasn't the word for what she knew she'd feel the moment she held them both in her arms safe and sound again. If only she knew they were both safe and sound...

She'd finally stopped pacing and an eerie silence had fallen over the shop as she and Gideon and Regina awaited whatever was coming for them next. Death? Life? Time ticked onward, leaving them suspended in the unknown. The night was quiet. The shop was cold. In all her books and in her wildest imaginations something like a battle was always loud and hot and it was difficult to fathom that battle might be happening somewhere in Storybrooke right this moment. She figured there would be sparks or magic in the air or a red sky…anything but a quiet, almost peaceful, night.

Across the room the floorboards groaned as Regina shifted her weight. They'd all done it dozens of times in the last hour or so, but something about the way she did it brought her out of the stupor fear had put her mind into. And when she heard the ground around her son moan to she looked up at the pair of them to find their eyes trained on something outside the window. A black figure, hunched over, at the library corner. The light from the library concealed his face as he crossed the street at the intersection and moved to the Pawn Shop, but she knew the walk all too well.

Her heart began to race as a smile stretched over her face, and her body came back to life, itching with urges to run, to jump, to hug, to kiss. She didn't hear the bell when he finally stepped back into the shop, just launched herself into his arms and buried her face in her favorite spot against his chest. Taking deep breaths had seemed impossible for the last hour or so. Now all she wanted to do was breathe deep, and take it all in, despite the fact that her lungs couldn't seem to catch up with her.

"I was so worried," she muttered as the water in her eyes vanished, absorbed by the fabric of his jacket.

"You have nothing to fear," he assured her. She hadn't even been aware of his own arms around her until he let go and stepped back to look over her head at Gideon across the room. "Neither of you do. What's done is done."

"What's done is done…" Regina echoed, reminding them of her presence in the shop. She was smirking, but watched as it grew into a thoughtful smile. "Congratulations," she muttered softly, genuinely, then pushed herself off the glass case that she had spent the last hour leaning against. She moved to leave the shop, and gave his arm an encouraging pat on her way. When the bell over the door fell back into silence it was just them, alone in the shop at last. Her family. Only they couldn't be in her arms just yet. Gideon was still tied to the chair and when she turned this way or that she could see the glimmer of the gold dust that circled him on the floor.

She glanced up at Rumple, and he nodded, understanding already what she was wondering. "I have it."

From within the depths of his jacket, he pulled out a heart, bright and glowing red. To her, it shone more vividly than any light in the shop. Or maybe it was just the smile she felt growing on her face.

"It's a shock," she explained striding towards Gideon and taking his hand. "But it's not painful."

"It's alright," Gideon replied looking up at his father. "I've been waiting for this for a long time. I'm ready."

She nodded and stood back, allowing Rumple the space he needed to work his magic.

Rumple kicked at the floor, forcing his prized golden dust away so that her son could once again work magic as soon as it was safe. They'd have to remove the cuff too of course, but this would allow Rumple to return his heart. With Gideon tied to the chair and Rumple looming he couldn't be as tender as he had been when he'd returned her heart, but it was done almost as mercifully, with a violent shove that replaced it in the blink of an eye.

Gideon jumped at the shock of it, just as she had when he'd returned hers months ago. In the aftermath, the small traces of discomfort that she'd seen on his face faded away, and he let out a breath that could only be relief before looking up at Rumple, his father, and smiling.

"Thank you father," he nodded.

Had she ever seen him smile before? She didn't have enough time when he was a baby. Now they did. And it was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. That was his happy face and she was eager and excited to see every other face he'd make from here on out! Joy, sadness, pensive, angry, frustrated, stressed, exuberant!

Rumple used his magic to vanish away the ropes that bound him to the chair, now that he was the master of his own self again the threat had past.

"Welcome home son."

With tears in his eyes Gideon rose swiftly and threw his arms around Rumple just as she had when he'd returned. He dwarfed him, standing inches taller than him probably at least a foot taller than her with her shoes off and for the first time, she began to wonder where he had gotten his height from. It was a silly thing to wonder about at a time like this, with her husband and her son both in tears beside her, happily reunited. But after all that she'd worried about last week, it was a curiosity she was happy to have. There were far worse things to wonder about.

Their hug seemed to last for days, and she was glad for it, but she felt her own arms itch and was just ready to give up and hug them both when he backed away from his father and glanced at her. She let out a cry filled with happy tears as he reached down and finally put his arms around her. She'd never had a tighter hug. Not from her father or Rumple or even Neal. And she didn't think she'd ever given a tighter hug, to her mother or Rapunzel or even Ruby when she'd gone away. When Gideon pulled away it was too soon.

"I've missed you," he assured her. "So much."

She nodded but couldn't speak without bursting into tears. She felt the same. She didn't know what it was to truly miss someone until this week. She hadn't known until she finally had her son in her arms, safe and sound.

"Both of you!" he stated looking back at Rumple. In her son's absence, she'd moved closer, happily allowing him to put an arm around her back to keep her upright. "And I'm so sorry I allowed her to take control of me," he choked out.

She couldn't control the tears in her eyes any longer. If there ever was a time to cry or words to cry over this was it. This last week had felt like years, she couldn't imagine what the years felt like to him. Especially with that woman in his life. But the evil time was gone. It wasn't Gideon's fault, it never had been. They were to blame. For fighting and allowing the world to drive a wedge between them that put their son at risk. They'd allowed her to take him.

"Can you forgive me?" he questioned.

"Of course we can," Rumple answered for her, his grip on her back tightening. "You were under her control. We can only imagine how difficult that was, but look…you needn't worry about her ever again."

The years they would never get back but the ones they could build now were endless. With both of them. She stepped away and allowed her hand to seek out his. This was a happy occasion for them, for both of them. They had succeeded and gotten their son back but she couldn't forget that all magic came with a price and he had paid it this time. He'd killed his father to protect her and Neal and now he'd killed his mother to save Gideon. Savior or not, that was no small feat.

"I know how hard that must have been, facing your mother like that, Rumple."

Small traces of sadness and guilt worked their way into his eyes as he looked away, just as pensive as he had been before he left. But those traces never quite made it to his face before he tightened his grip on her hand and looked back at her.

"Well, it's over now, the Black Fairy will never again be a problem for us," he muttered looking over at Gideon.

"I'm proud of you!" she stated. She could see he would be happy enough to dismiss it all but she was too overwhelmed to let him. What he'd done was a great thing. It wasn't good and it certainly wasn't bad, it was great! It was an accomplishment millennia in the making. The Dark One using magic for Light. Rumpelstiltskin finally fulfilling his promises, protecting his family and saving his son. It wasn't something to be dismissed. It was something to be lifted up. "You did what you said you would, you fought for this family…you saved your son."

With a deep breath, he finally turned to her with a smile on his face. "I make a promise to you Belle, and to you Gideon, it may not always seem apparent at the time, but everything I do…is for you. To keep you safe."

She let out a sigh and wrapped herself back around his side, letting her head rest over his shoulder. They were going to have to talk about that, about how far that promise went and how appropriate it would be. In fact she suspected that particular conversation was going to go on for years, that it would morph and change, grow into arguments on occasion and shrink into a distant memory at times. But for now she was content to open her hand up and hold Gideon's, to be held at Rumple's side as their son looked between them. So much time lost…they had work to do now to make up for it.

"Let's go home," she muttered, glancing up at her husband before squeezing her son's hand. "All of us!"

* * *

 **Yay! A happy ending! Only it isn't. That being said this may seem like the end of 6x19, but it's not. You didn't think I would be letting us go that easily, did you? At such an important time? Heck no! We have two more chapters in the 6x19 verse that I think you are going to like. If you've wondered what happened with the Gold family after they were all safe and sound, well wonder no more. That is coming up next!**

 **Thank you Grace5231973, Fox24, and Rumbellefan for your awesome reviews of the last chapter, filler as it may have been. I hope that you liked this chapter. I hope that even though it was a "seen" chapter, I made enough stuff come together to make it all flow a bit better. And I do hope you are excited for the next few chapters! Another one of my favorites is coming up very soon! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	62. No Ordinary Bedtime Routine

"And now, you are free, in every way," Rumple muttered removing the cuff that he'd placed around his son's arm.

Gideon sighed in relief as he held his wrist in his hand and rubbed it. "Thank you, Father."

Rumple was quick to walk the cuff into the back room, where she was certain that it would be kept safely hidden until the next time it was required, and when he returned he held his keys in her hand.

"Shall we go then?" he questioned looking between the two of them.

"Home?" Gideon questioned. The corner of his mouth turned up in a quick smirk before he let out a sigh, as if someone had just knocked all the breath out of him. "I'd…I'd like that very much, indeed."

"Then we'll be on our way. Belle..."

He'd intended for her to take the lead in their departure, but instead, he looked shocked as she wrapped her hands around his elbow and dragged him from that place by her side. She couldn't stop smiling. She couldn't stop looking! And she couldn't stop wondering what to say or how to act. It was all so strange to her. Locking up the shop with Gideon at their side, walking to the car as a trio instead of a couple. She would, when she could, cast glances up at her son, and though there were dozens of questions she wanted to ask him, not a single one of them came out of her mouth. Her smile was too firmly fixed upon her face. For now, she was just happy to bask in his presence as that small voice in the back of her head repeated over and over "He's coming home. He's coming home."

Until he stopped dead in the street when they arrived at the car. Gideon swallowed as he looked it over, suddenly realizing as Rumple unlocked and held open the passenger side door for her to get in exactly what his father intended.

"I've seen these contraptions in my time here," he stated, looking so nervous that she had to bite her lower lip to keep from laughing. Contraption. He was just like her when she'd come out of her curse. No knowledge of technology or this world, she could only guess where the Black Fairy had been keeping him while he'd been here. They were going to have to take the next few days very slow, introduce him to this new world just as she'd been introduced. There was no way to avoid making him feel overwhelmed by it all, but she hoped that one step at a time, as she had learned, would eventually lead to competency.

"It's called a car," she explained sitting in the seat. "They're how people go from one place to another in this world."

"Can we not just use our magic?" Gideon asked looking over at his father.

"Well…not everyone has magic here, your mother for example," he answered. "And, as someone who has magic," Rumple moved around Gideon and pulled on the handle that opened the door to the backseat she couldn't be sure had ever been used in this car, "I can tell you that sometimes it's nice to use non-magical means of transport on occasion. It can be quiet and comforting, a good place to think should you need it."

Gideon nodded, his eyes wide, then finally, after what appeared to be a very big breath he stepped inside the car and sat down on the bench seat. Rumple closed the pair of them in together as he walked to the other side. When she glanced back to look at her son she thought he looked far more terrified of this than he had the pain the Black Fairy caused him in the shop. Probably she shouldn't be smiling at such a face, but terrified as he was the knowledge that he was truly safe, for the first time since she'd held him as a baby, reassured her. How could she be anything other than happy?

"It's going to make some noises," she explained. "It'll move, and you'll feel some vibrations, maybe a bump or two, but it's all normal. You have nothing to worry about; your father is a good driver. And we'll be home shortly. If it weren't so cold out, we could walk there."

"Yes, perhaps we might consider that for tomorrow," he commented looking around and settings his hands awkwardly on either side of his legs. She smiled as she sat forward. He was scared, but there really was nothing to fear, she'd learned that same lesson herself when she'd first gotten into the car with him. He'd learn soon enough too. He wasn't five; he was a full-grown man, he'd get there. She decided though, not to tell him about the seatbelt or its purpose, thinking it might be too much, all things considered. Instead, she just freed her own and let him watch as she snapped it into place. When Rumple opened the door to get behind the wheel, she heard a click behind her and knew he'd figured it out on his own.

The ride home was quiet, but certainly not awkward. She was expecting that it would be, the three of them trapped in close confines with only each other…yes, she'd expected that might be an odd feeling. But she didn't exactly take the fact that she didn't feel awkward as a good sign. There wasn't a sense of awkwardness in the car because it was filled with something else. Exhaustion. For the first few moments Gideon had been alert, his eyes wide as he took in all the sights and sounds and feelings that came with riding in a car for the first time, but eventually she heard a sigh in the back, and looked back to find his head leaning against the rest, his lids heavy. Rumple was no better, alert as he was, she could tell he was deep inside himself, and when she stared down at her own lap she realized just how tired she was from these past few days as well. She'd stayed up all night the night before searching for the dragon egg. As much as she was dying to talk with her son, to get to know him, and have a big family dinner, she understood that perhaps tonight was best left for a few necessities so they could begin all that fresh, tomorrow morning.

She'd only just had the thought when they pulled up in front of the house, and Rumple stopped the car. In the back, she heard movement and glanced back to find Gideon looking out the windows all around him.

"This is it," she muttered motioning to the house in front of her. It was dark inside, and she feared it might be too ominous for his comfort as he looked up at it.

"It's not black," he observed instead.

She looked through the windows and observed that though there was no light inside the streetlights lit it up so that it at least looked like a deep burgundy instead of its daylight tone of pink. But no, certainly not black. What an odd color to picture a home.

"You imagined it would be?" she questioned, looking at him over her shoulder.

He didn't notice, just continued to stare upward at the house. "I've never lived anywhere that wasn't black."

The silence that brought was awkward. Her eyes wandered over to Rumple, who was looking back at her with equal intensity. Her urge was once more to cry at what he had experienced, how he'd lived, who he'd grown up with. But tears at this moment would be of no help to Gideon and certainly wouldn't get him the rest he needed. So she swallowed them back and removed her seatbelt.

"Well, now you do."

With a little explanation, Gideon was able to remove his seatbelt, open and close the car door and the first thing she did when she unlocked the door to their home was find the hallway light to chase away as many of the black shadows as she could.

"There's an extra bedroom upstairs," she explained hanging her coat up on a hook. "I'll go change the sheets on the bed for you, and you can sleep there tonight. Are you hungry?"

"I haven't eaten in days," he replied.

She paused on the stairs, absorbing the words but doing her best not to show how they'd hit her like bullets. "Rumple, I think there are some leftovers in the fridge. Maybe you could-"

"I'll think of something," he answered, looking around the house as though he'd never seen it before.

Upstairs, alone in the hallway she finally let herself lean against a wall and breathe. The time it took to get from the shop to where she was now was short, but it was all that she needed to break her heart all over again as she considered possibility after possibility. He'd been with the Black Fairy, a woman she had no doubt truly hadn't cared for him, not the way a mother should. Where had he been staying? How had he been living that every place he'd ever known was black? And he said that he hadn't eaten in days, he must have been half starved with her. Living as her prisoner with the other children couldn't have been much better than what he'd been going through here with that woman!

It took her a few moments to calm herself, but in the end, she'd managed not to cry or break down. Instead, she felt as though her heart had grown stronger with the determination to show him, to prove that life wasn't like that. She went to the linin closet and pulled out fresh sheets. She'd put him in the room that Rumple had made for her when he'd intended to bring her home from the hospital. It was suited for her, a woman, but for now it had a large bed for him to sleep in and that was all she cared about. They'd worry about the rest in the morning. As she moved about the house, she turned on as many lights as she could get her hands on. She didn't care if they slept with the lights on for the rest of their lives, Gideon wasn't going to live in shadows anymore.

When her task was finally done, and she returned downstairs she followed the voice of her boys back into the kitchen, their conversation flowed easily as she listened to dishes and silverware clink together and someone turned on the faucet.

"Sink," she heard Rumple state. "Brings water to you."

"Not from a well," Gideon replied, his tone somewhere between casual observation and a question.

"Through pipes," Rumple explained. "They run throughout the house. Here, we'll leave a plate for…your mother."

She smiled at that comment. He'd been about to call her "Belle", just as he always did and always had. But they weren't Belle and Rumple in this house anymore. At least not exclusively. There were Mother and Father. Finally. When she turned the corner, she found a bowl of soup with a spoon and cup of tea sitting for her on the table and her men by the sink as Rumple finished loading the dishwasher. She crossed her arm and leaned against the door jam as she watched the pair of them together. They'd eaten fast. And if she knew Rumple he'd had a good meal. He was well on his way already.

"Bed's ready," she finally commented, drawing their attention to her. "I put some soaps in the guest bathroom upstairs, if you'd like to take a shower and clean up a bit before you go to bed."

She knew that she would have, after spending the night in the mines and then the day tied to a chair in the dusty pawn shop. But instead of the look of relief that she would have expected or even gratitude, he just looked around the kitchen and finally back at his father until she understood what was wrong.

"It's like a bath only simpler," Rumple explained lifting the lid to the dishwasher. "I'll show you how it works," he explained. There was a quick exchange where Rumple pointed out the food he'd left for her at the table before he led Gideon from the room. He glanced down at her and offered a brief but awkward smile. Then they were gone.

She sat down at the table and held her head in her hands, going over her mistakes. If she hadn't been half starved herself she probably wouldn't have had much of an appetite at the thought of all she'd done wrong in the last few minutes. She thought he was like her, but he wasn't. He had even less knowledge than she had after the curse had broken. It must have seemed as though she was speaking gibberish to him. But Rumple had done this before, with her, ages ago. He'd explained to her even then the things that she'd understood perfectly well. He was good for Gideon. A good father just as he'd always been. She just had to be a good mother now. At least she had a good partner…or at least she hoped she did.

Upstairs, she could hear creaking and groaning from the wood as the two of them moved around and finally, she heard the noises in the walls around her as the water began to move through them. It turned off for a brief moment, then back on again quickly, she assumed so Rumple could show him how to turn it off. She waited for a while after it came back on, and watched the threshold of the kitchen expecting to at least see Rumple back downstairs, but he never turned up. Not while the water was on, not after it turned off and she heard doors opening and closing, not even after she finished washing out her bowl and decided it was her turn to go upstairs.

At the top, she wasn't terribly surprised to find that he'd turned some of the lights she'd turned on off. She had, perhaps gone a little too over the top with that. The door to her bedroom was cracked open, but it was the bedroom at the end of the hall, the one she'd assigned to Gideon, that called to her the most. She wondered of course if she should just let him alone, all of this was probably just as overwhelming to him as it had been to her on her first night, it might be best to just let him ease into it on his own for a while…

But despite the decision she'd come to, her feet had all the while been taking her down the hall. She knocked first, but when no one answered she turned the knob and let herself in. Gideon was there, sitting on his bed, in pajamas that she was certain belonged to Rumple but had clearly been magically enhanced to fit him. He looked less imposing in them. Just as tall as ever, but skinnier than she'd expected.

"Sorry, when you didn't answer I worried," she excused.

Gideon looked away and around the room. "I've never had a door before," he finally answered. "Or sturdy walls, or the freedom to say who could come and go."

She nodded, realizing that she was going to have to prepare for more of this over the coming days. It was more than just this world he'd be getting used to, it was his freedom as well.

"I can go, if you like, I didn't intend to barge in-"

"No! No, it's…it's fine!" he corrected, rising to his full height. "I just…I didn't know what to say."

"I was just wondering if you were alright? If there was anything you needed before we all turned in?"

Once more Gideon looked around him, looking lost in such a small room that he was almost far too big for. "I'm not sure…I've never had more than a cot or a cage, I didn't even know that people used special clothes to sleep in," he smiled plucking at the shirt he was wearing.

"Well…" she sighed, walking in and grabbing the handful of blankets that were perfectly tucked around his bed. "There's not much more to it, you just turn off the lights, slide right in, and…sleep."

"Sleep," he echoed, looking over the place she'd prepared for him. It was an odd distant look, one that she didn't have words to describe. Though she could spend the next few hours explaining every little detail to him she suddenly realized that it was probably better to just leave him to it. If he needed something in the middle of the night…they'd be there.

"We're right down the hall if you should need something," she suggested moving back toward the door.

After a moment, Gideon smiled back at her. "I think I'll be alright, but thank you…mother."

He said it like it was an after thought, like he'd forgotten who she was in the short time he'd been here. She wanted so much to tell him she loved him, so much to hold him and hug him and tell him that he was safe and loved and would be happier here as soon as some of his wounds healed! But she didn't want to scare him. Something about his demeanor reminded her of a cat she'd seen once, who had been so afraid of people that it had run into a busy road at Avonlea. The cat had barely escaped with its life. She didn't want Gideon to feel that, she didn't want him to feel nervous or anxious, she just wanted him to feel safe. And that was a lesson better absorbed through being safe, rather than being told. So no matter what she wanted to tell him, instead she backed slowly out of his room and put on her sweetest smile.

"You're welcome. Good night, Gideon."

"Good night, Mother."

* * *

 **These are the scenes I was dying to see after Gideon got his heart back. I was so hoping that we would see a little bit more of the Gold family than we did. Don't get me wrong, I get why we didn't. There were a lot of little details that needed to be covered and time was short. Compared to finding out the Black Fairy is still alive and watching the Gold's go home and explain "how to take a shower" to Gideon...Black Fairy takes priority. But that being said, I was still curious, so I really enjoyed composing these chapters that detailed the Gold family, at home, in the shop, out and about, thinking things through and coping (or not coping, in Rumple's case) with what happened to them. I wondered what Gideon's homecoming would look like for a while and when I started writing this chapter two things came to mind. First, was the fact that Gideon was essentially in the exact same situation that Belle once was, so it wasn't as simple as just saying "okay, foods in the fridge, shower is upstairs, you're in the bedroom to the right." He was going to need things explained. The second thing was the word "exhausted". Rumple...is irrelevant in this point. But I thought about how Belle has been going around for the last week, worried and stressed, and had just pulled yet another all nighter. And as for Gideon, he is free for the first time in his life (or so he thinks). I imagine that with relief, comes peace, and with peace comes a need to sleep well. So, while this chapter contains pretty much "they went home and went to bed", I want you to know that more is coming. This just seemed like the most reasonable homecoming, all things considered. I couldn't see the three of them sitting up all night and talking.**

 **Thank you Grace5231973, Judymulder, Paintbrush123, and Rumbellefan for your reviews on the last chapter. I hope that you like this chapter but I know you will like the next chapter. Belle isn't asleep yet! And coming up next we have another really awesome conversation between Belle and Rumple and the final 6x19 chapter! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	63. Next Steps Forward

Surprised as she was at everything, complex as the emotions running through her felt, she found herself smiling as she walked down the hall to their bedroom. He was older than the infant she'd given birth to almost two weeks ago, so old she was certain he probably was only younger than her by a few years. But it didn't matter if he was thirty or three hundred, he was her boy. Time had been lost, that seemed certain, but now that he was safe endless time yet unlived stretched out before them! And while certain aspects reminded her of Neal she was encouraged by the fact that he was here. Neal had resisted the notion of family, turning a room at the house down and preferring to stay at Granny's. And after getting to know him, she understood his reasoning behind it, truly she did. Neal had gotten family despite not wanting one and rebelling against the idea of it. Gideon on the other hand didn't seem opposed to the idea of it, he was just going to take some time to get used to where the world had delivered him. And how.

Their bedroom door was cracked, the lights inside were turned off, but the moment she opened the door light from the hall flooded in, and she spied Rumpelstiltskin. He was cast in shadow in the darkness, his hand to his mouth, his back slumped forward, he was wearing that same pensive stare she'd seen him possess in the shop after he'd awoke from his dream. She wasn't surprised by his lack of smile; it had been a long day for all of them, him probably more than any of them and she was certain that this new found freedom brought with it a certain sadness for things that he too had lost and might now never get to experience. But he did perk up the moment that she came in, looked at her and smirked.

"How is he?" he whispered as she closed the door a bit so Gideon wouldn't hear their noise.

She beamed and felt an undeniable grin stretch from ear to ear as she removed her belt and kicked her shoes into the corner.

"Wonderful," she answered. "He's wonderful." It wasn't until she glanced over her shoulder and saw how amused he was by her answer that she realized he hadn't been asking what she thought of Gideon so much as if he was alright.

"Sorry," she smiled, sitting on the foot of their bed and beginning to take the pins out of her hair. "I meant-"

"I know," he interrupted. "I understand. He seems fine to me. A bit confused perhaps, but that's understandable."

She nodded, finally getting her hair to uncurl off her head so she could let the braid free. "This wasn't exactly how I ever imagined it would be like when we brought our son home for the first time, but…I don't mind it."

It wasn't her first choice that he should be returned to her half starved and exhausted, that he wouldn't know what it was like to have a room of his own, or a door, or any kind of freedom of choice, but considering what his past was she would rather this than anything else. If they couldn't go back in time and change things themselves, then this was better than many alternatives.

"We've missed a lot. There will be a lot of catching up in the days to come. And in the years…I'm sure there will be traces of what my mother did to him that linger, especially where his magic is concerned. Man or not, we'll have to correct it."

Those comments did make her smile vanish, reliving everything he'd said since he'd come back to them was painful, and she wondered if he'd caught it too.

"Some of the things he says sometimes, about where he's lived and how he's been treated…they break my heart every time he says them."

Rumple nodded. "He had never bathed with hot water before. After work in the mines, the children washed with cauldrons filled with cold water. He'd never known that water could even be hot."

Yes. That. It was stories and details exactly like that which made her shiver. What had he lived through? What had Rumple lived through?

"Perhaps you were lucky not to grow up with her, there's no telling what would have happened to you."

"Perhaps…"

She'd said the wrong thing. Obviously. He'd breathed the word with little conviction and very suddenly had taken his eyes away from her. He stared at the back wall behind her, but she could tell that he wasn't really in the room at the moment, he was off somewhere else. Somewhere distant she wasn't sure she could reach. And it was understandable. She couldn't imagine what it was like to be rejected by his mother, but she understood the rejection of a father. Either way, it must have eaten at him. She wasn't sure that she could ever harm her father no matter what the status of their relationship was at the moment. The fact that he was responsible for both parent's death after they'd abandoned him…it made her relationship with her father look like a walk in the park. The burdens he must have felt on his soul would be hard to bear.

"What happened out there, Rumple?" she finally questioned, physically moving her head so that she would be in line with his own eyes and could bring him back to her. It was the only thing she could think to say so that she would learn how to help him through it. "What happened between you and your mother after you left?"

He wasn't staring off into distant space anymore. He was looking right at her, right into her eyes, and yet he remained silent for a long time. The only thing that kept her from pressing him was that she felt she could see his mind working, considering what he wanted to say. After a long while, he finally sat back with a sigh and shook his head.

"I'm not sure I'm ready to talk about it with you yet," he answered regretfully. "I will be, someday quite soon I imagine, just not tonight."

As much as she wanted to, she didn't question it further. A promise of discussing it was far better than nothing at all, and after all they'd been through tonight she figured he should be allowed to sit with it for some time before he had to discuss it, if that's what he felt was necessary. Yes, she was dying to know, and his denial made her nervous beyond belief, but he could only earn the trust she gave him. And in the meantime, there were other things they could discuss besides it.

"Well…I'm sure Regina has told the others by now."

"I told the others," Rumple corrected quickly. "Emma and her parents, I let them know myself."

"When did you do this?" she questioned, thinking the time over. There hadn't been time for it all.

"Before I came to the shop. They were at Granny's, I thought they should know that the Blue Fairy had been safely returned to the convent."

"The Blue Fairy…" She felt a charge of guilt run through her body. In all that had happened today, she'd completely forgotten about the Blue Fairy, that she'd been kidnapped and taken away. She felt cold and uncaring but after Rumple had woken up and she'd gotten her son back…well, she was glad he at least had the sense to know that she'd still needed rescuing. "Where was she keeping her?"

"The mines," he answered. "She's a little worse for wear; she was tortured using special instruments that work on fairies so that my mother could learn the location of the wand. The fairies will fix her up though, I'm sure."

"I'm sure. What did the others say…when you told them about what happened?"

He paused for a moment before blurting out the word "unsurprised". It was enough to tell her that there had been further words exchanged but she wasn't sure if he'd ever tell her what.

"I think they were more concerned with the wedding to be honest."

"Wedding?"

"Hook and Emma, supposedly they are getting married tomorrow."

She felt her eyes go wide in shock. No one had told her that! No one told her that they were engaged let alone looking to be wed! Of course...she knew from experience that sometimes long separations could create an urge to push through things like that quickly enough, but she'd never imagined…married. They hadn't said anything about marriage.

Marriage.

It was the word that brought her back to reality and shattered the odd little bubble they were in. She looked around the room then, just as Gideon had his own, suddenly realizing that for the first time in a very long while they were here, together. And not just that. She'd kicked her shoes off, removed her belt, taken her hair down. She'd just about gotten ready for bed in front of him and hadn't even noticed!

What now? What exactly was the state of their marriage at the moment? The state of their family was looking up, but that was a completely separate thing aside from their own marriage. She'd kissed him before he'd gone to face his mother and promised that she'd be there as she hadn't the last time he'd gone off to be a hero, in order to plan their future together, but did that mean that all had to be well right then and there? Looking back that kiss, right as it had been at the time felt like a dream. A wonderful, emotional dream. In a perfect world, it was all forgiven and taken care of, and they would sleep together tonight, picking up right where they left off! But…were they ready for all to be forgiven? Could they allow the arrival of Gideon to gloss over what had happened between them in the last months?

If she was already worrying about separate sleeping arrangements, then the answer was no. With a heavy sigh, and her decision made, she rose to her feet.

"It's late. You've had a long day. Why don't you take the bed tonight and tomorrow we can work on-"

"No, Belle," he rose just as fast as she had and she found herself almost nose to nose with him. There was a moment, one in which they both looked at each other, and she finally saw a flash of life behind his eyes that she recognized. This was why it was always so easy. This was why she always put up a good fight until he was in her personal space and walls seemed to fall to the ground. Because beneath whatever feelings they had for one another, good and bad alike, there was love between the two of them. And need and desire and want and though three seconds ago she'd been ready to go downstairs and leave him in his privacy, completely happy to let whatever had passed between them before his battle stay in the past, she felt her heart beat now! All her second thoughts began to swirl in her mind and she began to calculate just how simple it would be now to lean forward those extra few inches. Touch him once and she was certain they would fall back into bed as if nothing had ever happened. But something had happened...

"You take the bed," he muttered finally taking a small step away from her so that they both could breathe. Her arms felt heavy again. It was only moments ago they felt weightless. She hadn't been touching him, but she felt as though she had been. Standing so close without it was like fighting the pull of a magnet. He would have had to step away to sober the two of them. "My fingers are itching to spin something," he finally explained fidgeting with his hands in front of his belly.

"You haven't done that in a while," she observed. Her mouth felt dry. The words were all she could choke out.

"It helps me think. Maybe if I'd done it more often…" his voice trailed off and his eyes fell over her. All of her. Not just her face or her hair but her collar bone and shoulders, down her torso and legs to her stocking feet. It was unnerving. And she found herself shaking again before she took a step back herself, trying to break that connection before it began all over again.

"Now might be the best time to start again," he concluded.

She nodded as he moved around her to the open door and felt cool air wash over her that she was sure was just her nerves breaking from underneath her skin. That had certainly been a close call. And she appropriately felt her cheeks blossom with red as he opened the door and let more light in.

"Good night, Belle."

"Rumple!" she cried out before he could leave the room. His gaze swept over her again but this time it was innocent. And curious. The feeling was mutual. She really had no idea why she'd called out to him. But her mind screamed at her, begged her not to do something stupid, not to chase after him like she had earlier for if one of them started neither would be able to stop themselves. They were so close to being out of this situation and yet so close to being into it as well.

"Your hair…I think…I think I could learn to like it. I think…I think it's growing on me."

She wasn't entirely sure why she'd said what she's said, why that of all things was the first thing to pop free from her mouth but…it wasn't a lie. Not in the slightest. And though she'd said any number of things that were wrong tonight and since they'd said their vows, the smirk on his face told her that this spontaneous utterance had been very right.

"I'm glad to hear it," he whispered through the shadows. "Good night, Belle."

* * *

 **This is certainly up there on favorite chapters list for me in this fiction if only because it shows change while showing consistency. The consistency part is easy enough. They love each other, plain and simple. It's undeniable. And they do tend to fall back into their routine too easily, as after Rumple has helped Gideon he goes back to their bedroom, and after Belle has helped Gideon she returns as well and practically gets ready for bed without having the thought of "oh we're not really together right now". But on that note, I wanted Rumple to experience the beginning of change that we'll see in the next few episodes. ::Spoiler alert:: I felt that it was obvious that he was really struggling with his decision to let his mother live. Maybe it was just me, but I thought I could see it. Now, that means that right now he's living with a secret, just as he was when Belle came back to him in season five. Now of course in season five his reaction was that he had to hide that fact because that was the life he wanted. In this chapter, I wanted him to put some distance between the pair of them on purpose. I wanted him to have those thoughts in his head of "I've been here before and seen the end, is this the life I want?" And I wanted him to separate himself from Belle while he considered it instead of lying to her again. I wanted to show that he has learned from past mistakes and is starting to consider them.**

 **Thank you Grace5231973, Fox24, and Rumbellefan for your reviews of the last chapter! I'm so glad so many of you liked it, even if the main plot of that chapter was "and they took Gideon home and he went to sleep." If you liked that, then I have no doubt you are going to like the next three chapters of this fiction. We didn't get to see The Gold Family in 6x20, but I was really excited to write it for that reason! So, say goodbye to all things 6x19! The start of 6x20, or as I call it, the start of the end, is coming up next! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	64. About a Boy

"There she is. What did I tell you? Always last to rise."

By the time she arrived downstairs, showered and dressed in her own clothes for once, it appeared she was the last one to the breakfast table. Rumple was already dressed, and she wasn't terribly surprised. She'd found evidence when she woke that perhaps he'd snuck into the room as she slept to shower and change, something she probably would have minded two weeks ago but suddenly saw no problem with now. And if he'd done it, respectable as he was, then that meant he knew she wouldn't take issue with it either. Those were good signs for the future, no matter when they decided to discuss it.

Gideon was dressed in a suit of his fathers, that once more appeared to be magically tailored to fit him perfectly. A lucky feat. If he'd been shorter she could have performed magic like that on her sewing machine, but she couldn't create fabric where there was none. Magic would have to do for now. But in the future...it might be nice to have fabric around, to make the clothes Lacey sketched out in her mind's eye but she'd been forced to ignore for so long. It was something she loved.

The boys were nearly finished with their breakfast by the time she sat down but Rumple had made her an extra omelet and she listened as Gideon and Rumple discussed what it was he did in this town. Just as he had explained it all to her after the curse had broken, she listened to him tell Gideon exactly what the pawn shop was and what his job had been during the curse. She watched her son take the information in eagerly and nearly choked mid-swallow when she realized that she couldn't be sure if he was eager or not. He certainly looked the part, but when she was young she had often pretended to take an interest in things that she didn't care for just because she had to. For all she knew Gideon was faking his responses. But…

He did resemble his father, in certain ways, not just in appearance. It was in the proper way he sat, the way his eyes observed everything around him carefully, even the way he seemed broken to her was familiar. Was it so silly to think he might resemble her as well? That he might truly be eager about this world he was living in, that he might want to learn and explore, that he would want to know everything he possibly could just to put the life he'd had behind him? It didn't sound unreasonable to her. Perhaps he was just as curious as she expected he was.

She was excited to get to know him, to spend the day with him at the shop, to observe him more and see if he let more of his guard down around her. But by the time they pulled up in the car, a "contraption" she could still tell Gideon wasn't fond of, she was surprised to find Snow White and Prince Charming standing by the door. Rumple's face went nearly white as she felt a pitch in her stomach. That kind of arrival never brought good news with it.

"Rumple…"

"We'll have to find out," he answered before she could even ask the question.

It was a chilly day, but not so cold that it was uncomfortable. By all accounts, she was sure almost everyone would call this a "nice day", far too nice for anything to be awry. And yet…

"What's wrong now?" she blurted out as the three of them approached the couple. Their eyes had been focused on Gideon, uneasy and timid of his presence behind them, but in a blink, they looked each other over before David looked back down at her.

"What's wrong is that my daughter is getting married today…and has nothing to wear," he stated, a smile on his face growing.

She couldn't help staring back at them in disbelief as the shocking news Rumple had left her with last night returned to her mind. Emma was getting married. It seemed so soon, so quick! The Black Fairy had only just barely met her demise and Emma would be married twenty-four hours later? It seemed odd to her.

"Well, this is a pawn shop, the bridal store I believe is one block over," Rumple replied.

"They won't have what I'm looking for," Snow inserted with an excited smile.

"And what exactly is it that you're looking for?"

"Something from our world, something important…my wedding dress."

And that was how, less than twenty-four hours after her son had returned to her, she found herself in the attic of the pawn shop with him, opening box after box. Rumple hadn't been sure he had the dress, but she had taken inventory of everything in the store including everything in storage and she was certain that she had seen a wedding dress when she had. Rumple had wanted them to go, to turn them away, but she'd been eager to do as Regina had suggested and give them "a show of good faith". She was furious with their behavior over the last few weeks. But weddings were special and if they as well as Emma insisted this was the proper time for it, then who was she to stand in the way. There would be endless days ahead of them to argue, but this wasn't one of them. And besides, the sooner they left, the sooner they could be alone together as a family.

Gideon had volunteered to go to the attic with her to help search for the garment, something she found herself smiling at as they ascended the dusty fold out stairs with flashlights in hand.

"Just watch where you step," she warned. "It's not the sturdiest of floors."

"What exactly are we looking for?" he muttered using his flashlight to sweep the area around them. There were more boxes up here than she'd remembered.

"It's a white dress in a box, sort of flat instead of bulky like these," she said motioning to the cardboard boxes stacked behind her. "I'll take this side."

"I'll take this side." She veered off to the left and examined the boxes around her. She was certain that the wedding dress she'd seen, which just so happened to fit Snow's description of her dress, was in a flat box, perfectly folded. But she'd moved so many things when she'd taken inventory, desperate for something to do to keep away the grief of the loss of her husband…she looked in all of them anyway. There was no harm in not leaving any stone unturned.

"Why would Snow White assume Father had her wedding dress?"

Gideon's voice rose up across the room and she glanced over her shoulder to find that he was copying her motions, opening boxes and using the flashlight to peer inside and check their contents. She shrugged as she searched another of her own to no success. Not there, she could have sworn it was in that back corner.

"When the curse was cast, important items from our world seemed to congregate around your father, and not by accident," she explained pushing some boxes aside so that she could get into the corner she thought she needed. "There are hundreds, maybe thousands of artifacts in this shop from home. Some good, some bad, almost all are powerful in some way even if it's just emotional."

"A wedding dress is an emotional thing?"

"For some, yes."

"But not for you?"

She felt a smile touch her face. She hadn't the faintest idea where the clothes that she'd worn that night were today. In the wash maybe? Hung up in a closet somewhere? She'd moved around so much it was difficult to say. But she could still picture them perfectly.

"Your father and I eloped, more or less, so I didn't have a dress but…yes, what I wore…it has sentimental value."

There! A flat box! A dress box, laced with silver and filled with…coins. And jewels. Carefully laid out to rest so they wouldn't be scratched or harmed when it came time to sell them. Her own work. Not a wedding dress. With a sigh she moved the box aside and kept looking, checking everywhere she could.

"Mother, I know…I know Snow White is the mother of the Savior, but I also know…I know the Savior has a son, who is my nephew."

He'd said his words carefully, delicately almost. As though he'd chosen each one with great precision. But she was able to pick the important information out of it. He knew he had a brother. How, she couldn't tell, the Black Fairy, no doubt. But how the Black Fairy had known…it didn't matter. She was dead and gone and Gideon was here and he deserved to know he'd had a brother. He would have found out eventually.

"Yes," she answered, searching casually through more boxes. He'd asked the question carefully, as if it was nothing, she didn't want to drop everything and overwhelm him. Keeping her tone even was a trial when talking about Neal, but it was necessary for the moment. "She and Neal, your brother, are Henry's parents. And Snow and David had another child a few months ago that they named after him."

"I've always been told his name was Baelfire."

"Was". Gideon had said "was". He knew he had a brother. And he knew his brother was dead.

"It was but…he changed it," she explained spotting another flat box a few columns away. "He preferred to be called 'Neal', but you'll still catch your father and I slip up every once in a while."

She shifted boxes, trying to get through the heap so they could get out of this place. But one of the boxes was too heavy to be simply slid away.

"Gideon, can you help me move this?" He nodded and moved across from where she was standing to place his hands alongside hers. "One, two, three!" Together they shifted the box aside just enough to make a path for her.

"I know…" Gideon began again, before she could move. "I know he's…passed on from this world."

He avoided her eyes, as if he was worried he'd touched on a nerve, and somehow it dawned on her that he also knew Neal was not his full brother, that she was not his mother like she was his own. He was worried it might upset her to bring him up. Not in a good way, but in a jealous way. She felt the tears she'd been holding back flood into her eyes. She could never be jealous of Neal. Never.

"He passed about six months ago…six months…six months tomorrow actually, just about a week before your father and I married," she hadn't considered that. She hadn't realized so much time had passed, that they were right on the verge of Neal's death. She wondered if Rumple knew. She wondered if Gideon had known. Neal had missed his little brother by six months.

"But…" she reached out and placed her hand over his own, unsure if Gideon would be comfortable with such a thing but desperate to hold on to something, to one of her sons would be enough. "He would have enjoyed having a little brother around," she told him. "We spoke of the subject often, the two of us. I promised I'd give you a good name, a strong name. I like to think I did."

Gideon was watching her now, his eyes wide and though she couldn't see tears in the dim light she could see that his eyes seemed to shimmer in a way, almost glisten.

"You were close?" he assumed.

She nodded. "Very," she only just managed to breathe out. She had to let go. She had to wipe her eyes, with all the dust in the air it would stick to her face and fingers and that wouldn't be good for a white dress. So she cleared her throat, and moved to the flat box she'd seen in the corner. When she pulled it free and opened it, she found a white dress inside. Snow White's wedding gown.

"Oh! Here we are!" she exclaimed, or attempted to against the lump of emotion still lodged in her throat. "It's very pretty."

"I can't believe father would keep something like this," Gideon wondered as she placed it into the box and covered it back up before the dust could tarnish it. She honestly wasn't sure if it was Emma's style, but she was certain Snow would be happy to have it back.

"Well, your father is a packrat, he never throws anything away, it'll be a chore getting this out the door as it is. But we'll get it there. We'll take it down to Snow."

"This has been a lot of excitement before lunch. Is it always this way?"

"No, but…more often than I'd like," she answered as she and Gideon crept out from the recesses of the shop. As they stood at the ladder back to the ground floor a sudden thought occurred to her. It was later in the morning but not too late, just before lunchtime…there were a lot of hours left…and she hadn't been in so long…

"Would you…would you like to see him? Your brother, I mean. Would you like to go see him, where he is?"

It wasn't an automatic response, not a quick 'yes' that she might have expected. Gideon took the time to consider it for a moment, perhaps stunned by the fact that he could answer "no" for once in his life. Or perhaps it was simply too much. Perhaps what the Black Fairy did with the dead in her realm was awful and he was picturing terrible things! She hadn't explained the concept of a graveyard yet! She was about to dismiss her query and tell him it was alright, they'd go when he was ready, but he finally gave a small confused sort of nod.

"Yes, I think I would."

* * *

 **Here's what we know about the Gold family during episode 6x20. 1) They were not at the wedding. 2) Belle found Snow White's dress sometime that morning. 3) Belle and Gideon are nowhere to be seen in this episode while Rumple has a few shady scenes with his mother. Conclusion: I had to find something that Belle and Gideon could do to keep busy while Rumple was doing the shady things and the Nolan Family was out in the streets dancing. So...I came up with some stuff. But of course I started with what we knew first and that was finding the wedding dress.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973, Rumbellefan, and Fox24, for your reviews on the last chapter. I'm glad you liked it because you've got a few more of those coming your way. There are two more like this to be exact. I'm sorry if you think it's over kill. I did try to fit it all in one chapter, truly I did, but again, things grew. I know things have been slow, but trust me when I say that things are going to start to pick up in a big way. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	65. Family Matters

It wasn't as much a hassle getting Rumple to get rid of the dress as she'd thought it was going to be, mostly because she cut Rumple out of the process. She found the three of them standing in the front of the pawn shop in silence, the heavy, uncomfortable kind. The kind of silence that was felt as well as heard when there was much to say and no one was going to say it. They would get there eventually, but given the circumstances today wasn't the day to get into all their issues.

"We found it!" she declared walking into the room. "Here you go, take it to Emma," she insisted putting it into Snow's hand. She heard a choked sound come out of her husband behind her, but she ignored it as she thanked her and David hurried the pair of them out the door. "Gideon I left my flashlight in the attic, do you think you can get it and then get the ladder to the attic closed?" she wondered, dismissing her son from the room. He nodded and left, allowing her to take Rumple by the hand and explain to him what had occurred and the new plan she had.

"You should come with us, to lunch and to see Neal; it's been…it's been six months."

She could tell that he hadn't considered it either, not until she'd said it. He was quiet for a long while, but then shook his head and took a gentle step back. He would have let go of her hand if she wasn't holding it so tight.

"I…I-I-I'm not sure I'm ready at the moment Belle. But you should go. You should spend as much time with Gideon as you can."

"So should you," she pressed. If he didn't want to see Neal, it was fine, but she was convinced it would be good for him. For them. They'd never actually gone to that grave together.

"I spent all day with him in the dream realm Belle, you need this, so does Gideon."

"He needs both of us. We could be with him together, it's not a competition we have to keep even, Rumple. We're a family, we need to be a family."

Rumple smiled. "And we will," he nodded. "Tonight, we'll have a family dinner but for now…you deserve to spend time with him as I did. And to see Neal."

She recognized when his stubbornness was unmoving and arguing became a waste of time. So she let it go, she promised that she'd make something nice for the three of them for dinner then pocketed her keys and when Gideon returned she took him to Granny's for lunch.

There were stares cast at the two of them, frankly, she would have been surprised if there hadn't been stares. But she was happy to ignore them in this situation and just focus on Gideon. Let them look. Let them see her boy was not the evil being the town had thougth he was!

"I don't know what to do here? I don't know what to eat."

"Well your father and I like burgers and tea, he likes pickles, and I usually give him mine."

"I'm sure anything is better than the gruel I used to eat."

He meant it as a joke, and she did manage to smile, but it was a struggle. Those were the kind of comments Rumple was talking about the night before. The kind that took them by surprise and made them both feel his absence in every inch of their hearts. But if Gideon was lighthearted about it, they had to be too. The way she saw it, he was bound to be the least picky person on the face of the planet after all he'd been through. And sure enough, when their food came he ate his burger so fast she'd hardly had two bites.

"You eat fast, just like Neal did."

The comment made Gideon pause, not self-consciously, but in something like nervousness. "I'm sorry," he apologized.

She shook her head. "Don't be sorry, there's nothing to be sorry for it's just an observation."

"Do I…do I look very much like him? I wondered, with Father, if I reminded him of…Neal," he questioned, remembering not to call him Baelfire.

She shook her head. "No, you have a few similarities, but you don't look much like him. Neal…he had darker hair, and he was shorter, his face was longer. He was…hold on..."

She rose and fetched a clean paper placemat from the place that she knew Granny kept them and asked the waitress for a pen. When she went back to the booth, she began to sketch out what she'd mentioned. Long face, dark hair, then moved on to other things, commenting on each one as she did. "He had lines around his mouth that you could see when he smiled but it was rare, he was solemn, a lot like his father. And crow's feet at his eyes. You have his eyes, your father's eyes. There was a bit of gray here, and he had a beard. I used to tease him in the mornings about how much time he wasted keeping it trimmed…" on and on she went, pouring every memory she had into that drawing until she finally presented her son, happily with an exact perfect likeness of his brother.

Gideon studied it. That was the only word for it. He examined each stroke she'd placed on the paper as if he was searching for something. And finally shook his head.

"I suppose he does look a bit like me here and there."

"A bit," she confirmed. "But not a lot."

He glanced up at her, a quick flash over the top of the paper but then looked back as his eyes widened. "You are crying," he observed.

Was she? She hadn't noticed, but she couldn't say that she was surprised. The reality of how long he'd been gone hit her like a ton of bricks she hadn't expected and when she considered all that had happened in the last six months that Neal had missed, in her life, in their lives, in Henry's…it was a difficult pill to swallow. Her own son by her side, all she really wanted to do was take him to see his brother.

"He was important to me. Every bit as much a son to me as you are," she explained. "Losing him was a blow to both your father and to me."

Without any further introduction she folded the picture she'd drawn and placed it safely inside her coat pocket then paid for their meal, and they left. This time, on the way to the cemetery, she remembered flowers. A few of the last flowers were still hanging on against the fall, and with the coming weather, she felt no guilt at pulling the car over and plucking them free from their stems. She'd never remembered flowers before.

The cemetery was quiet. Filled with the silence of the dead and the memories they carried with them. Gideon followed after her, just as quiet as the dead, looking forward as they picked their way through row after row of tombstones and she finally settled.

"This is him," she muttered, looking over the plain tomb that never changed. "Beloved Son, Neal Cassidy"…so simple and yet just right. Fitting, yet not satisfying, not for her. She laid the bundle of flowers she had at the base of his tombstone and wiped her eyes. The silence was awkward but in a different way than the silence had been between Rumple and the Charmings at the shop. Her heart yearned to introduce him to Gideon, and yet she didn't want to talk to the air and startle Gideon. She didn't know what he would think of it all, and just as she didn't want to press him too much last night, she didn't want to make him nervous or overwhelm him now.

"He was…he was a good son," she finally croaked out. "A good friend."

"Does Father miss him terribly?" he questioned, his voice stiff.

There was no need to question Rumple on that. She knew the answer just as plainly today as she had six months ago.

"Every day."

They didn't linger long. She wasn't exactly sure that Gideon understood it all and she would be far too emotional than was acceptable if they had. But they didn't go back to the car either, just walked around Neal, giving his tombstone a small pat as they wandered on.

"He was a good son," Gideon mentioned after a while, just as carefully and yet casually as he'd started the conversation in the attic. "But I know he wasn't yours."

She shook her head. "Not biologically…not the way you are, no."

"Is his mother still around? The Black Fairy never spoke of her."

"Milah," she supplied, her stomach automatically tightening at the very thought of her. She could think of any number of things to say about her, good and bad. But it was time to put an end to all that. She'd believed it when she had said it to Hook, and she believed it now. Now she had to put actions to it. "Your father's first wife, no, she…she died…a long time ago."

"Does he miss her terribly?"

Now it was her turn to carefully chose words. The answer was no. She knew that just as she knew he yearned for Baelfire every day of his life. But to say something so cold to her son, here of all places, now?!

"The story of your father and Milah is a complicated tale," she began. What he knew, what he didn't know, he wore it on his sleeve when he questioned her, but they hadn't had enough conversations for her to judge all of it yet. And if he didn't know…it was best to approach all that slowly. And carefully. "He loved her once, but love can sometimes turn to hate just as easily as it can turn into despair and happiness."

"May I ask you a question?"

Those words made her breath catch in her chest. He'd been asking questions, quite freely, so that fact that he was asking permission first made her tense. Whatever the question was, it was important.

"Anything," she responded. She hoped she wouldn't come to regret that word.

"What about you and father? When I first arrived, I spoke with the pair of you but when it was just father and I…

"I may be ignorant of this world and some of my own history but I know people, I've grown up around them my entire life, I can sense when two people don't like each other or are angry with each other or if they're friends. There's been a change, from that day at the cabin to last night. What is it?"

She nodded, he got that from her, the ability to read people easily. But with that realization came the revelation that he was an adult and not a child. It was becoming clearer with every passing minute she spent with him. He'd been sheltered, but he wasn't stupid. And he wasn't emotionless no matter what the Black Fairy had tried to turn him into. He was a son who was genuinely curious about the state of his parents' relationship. The problem was, she was genuinely curious about the same thing.

"There has been a change, but…it's complicated Gideon. A kind of complicated that would take weeks to explain. But I think we're both working on turning 'complicated' into 'simple,' and that is the change you've seen. We weren't before. And no matter what happens through it all you've nothing to worry about. We both love you. We'll both make the best life for you possible. You are the real change that has happened, our motivation for everything now. That's a powerful thing, a powerful kind of magic that you alone possess. You shouldn't think lightly of it."

They strolled on in silence for a few moments. Gideon was itching to say something. She could feel it. His curiosity was almost as visible as the clouds and waited, knowing, learning that while he was like his father in some ways, constantly observing, his mind thinking, he was like her in others. If he was curious about something, he'd say it. She only had to wait.

"When will you know?" he finally wondered aloud. "If things can be simple again, that is, when will you know?"

A boy, worried about his parents…some things she suspected were universal. But the answer to his question, she suspected, wasn't as complicated as she wanted to make it. Two weeks ago they'd been nothing but enemies and one week ago they'd practically been strangers. One week ago she'd been wondering if it was possible to rebuild a foundation that had been as damaged and cracked as theirs had. Now there was very little doubt in her mind that not only was it possible and well on its way to repair, but it was also so close to being complete that it might already be done. What came after the foundation though? How would they know what to build next? She wasn't entirely sure. But she was certain that just like the weeks of her life seemed to have flown by whenever she was in his presence, that knowledge would too. One thing they never seemed to master was how to take things slow.

"Soon," she answered confidently. "If it's to be…then I think we'll know soon."

* * *

 **So, Belle and Gideon together. It just sort of seemed obvious to me, that since we didn't see them in this episode, but we did see Rumple, that they would be hanging out together. This chapter was never really in question for me, I think I always wanted them to end up at the cemetery and have a talk about family because in my mind that seemed like the natural thing Gideon would want to talk about. I mean, I really doubt he's going to bring up the Black Fairy, he doesn't have friends to discuss, he's new to town so he can't really talk about how frustrated he is with construction, and being new to the world he doesn't really have politics to discuss (lucky him). If you eliminate all of the "typical" conversations you are pretty much left with "tell me about our family". This time around it was Rumple's family, the next chapter features Belle's family as well as, I'm sorry to say, a curse! Did that really need a spoiler alert?**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973, Fox24, Rumbellefan, and Notmyrealname for your beautiful comments on the last chapter. I hope that you are enjoying the 6x20 chapters. The next chapter is the last of them before we're on to 21/22, the final section. That may be sad for some, I think there are some people who would be happy if I went on writing Belle and Gideon forever. But don't worry, they'll be back in another fiction, I promise! Peace and Happy Reading!**


	66. More Questions, Less Answers

Their day was far more emotional than she'd expected. The cemetery, though it had seemed a good idea at first, was probably not the first place she should have brought her son. Gideon's confusion over all of it was clear on his face the more they walked until he finally asked "what is the purpose of a place like this?"

She'd done her best to explain it, that it was a place for the dead as well as a place of remembrance, a place where family and friends could come to think of those they'd lost. But the explanation was lost on Gideon. Especially when Gideon mentioned that he'd never dreamt up anything like this. When he lost friends in the Fairy's realm, they'd just disappeared, never to be seen again and those who were left chose to absorb the lesson their disappearances had taught them, but not to dwell on the loss. Having something like this was eerie to him.

She'd meant to end the suffering right then and there, take him back to the car and go to the store for dinner…but she'd found herself stumbling to a stop at the sight of another stone.

Robin Hood.

"Mother? I don't understand."

That was just the thing wasn't it, she didn't understand either. Though he'd never been as close to her as Neal had been, she couldn't fathom how this was the first time since her return from the Underworld that she was seeing Robin's grave stone. She hadn't been awake when he passed and sometimes it felt like...like he wasn't really gone. Like he'd simply moved back to New York City or the Enchanted Forest and was happily living out the rest of his life. He had never really felt dead to her, until just now.

"He was a friend…" she muttered, too shocked to move. "A very good friend to me and your brother."

"Should we…should we leave him something then? Like the flowers we left for Baelfire?"

She shook her head, her hands feeling strangely empty. "No, I…I'm afraid I don't have any left."

After a pause Gideon stepped around her and held out his hand toward the grave. Slowly, vines began to creep up from the ground and fumble their way over the bottom of the black tombstone. Out of the ends of each one, a flower exploded, budded, bloomed, and flourished with golden light, coming to rest along the side. Purple, blue, white, orange, red, yellow. Flowers of every color, some she hadn't seen before. It was a shame really, she found herself thinking she would much rather have Gideon given that bouquet to Neal.

The grocery store was another adventure, unlike the quiet demeanor Gideon had taken at the graveyard, here he seemed to come alive with curiosity. He asked question after question and stared at all of it as though he were a kid in a candy store. She was tempted to let him pick out what he wanted to eat but after his comment about eating gruel she realized he might not have a favorite food or meal, he might not know the difference from one food to another. So she chose for him, picking up everything that they would need for a few nights. She got chicken and pasta for Chicken Parmesan, Steak and Potatoes, ground beef and beans for tacos, pork and vegetables for a stew that Rumple liked, and anything and everything Gideon looked at on top of all that. They were going to make these next few days an adventure. And she was certain, by next week, he would have a favorite food.

It was late by the time they got home, the sun was on its way down and if Rumple wasn't home already she expected it wouldn't be long until he arrived. When he got there she didn't want to be cooking in the kitchen, she wanted them all sitting down, together, enjoying their evening, answering whatever questions Gideon could think of. Something quick then. Steak and Potatoes. It was easy enough. Gideon wandered as she cooked and though she very much so wanted to go after him, she was tied to the kitchen. It was fine, it was probably something that he should have the opportunity to do. He lived here now. This was his home for however long he chose or however long he needed it to be home. He should get to know it.

She had just finished the steak and was about to put them and the potatoes in the oven to stay warm until Rumple arrived when she heard and odd musical note coming from another room followed by frenzied footsteps. She wiped her hands on a nearby dishtowel and went to investigate. Gideon was staring at an upright piano that she hardly ever paid any attention to except to dust.

"What is this?" he questioned looking it over with wide, wild eyes that told the story. He'd touched one of the keys, that was the sound she'd heard, he just hadn't known it would make a sound back at him.

"Piano," she explained pulling out the bench. "They make beautiful music." She sat down and breathed, recalling a melody she'd learned to the point of memorizing in her youth. It was a lullaby. She got through the first couple of lines alright but then-

"Oh!" she screwed up her face in displeasure when one of the notes sounded sour. She had to stop to let her eyes uncross. "At least they make beautiful music when they're tuned right. We'll have to get that fixed," she observed pushing the bench in and covering the keys.

"You draw pictures and play musical instruments," Gideon noted quietly, sounding far too amazed at her fading skills.

"Not as well as I used to. When you grow up as royalty, there are things you must learn. Princes learn the art of war and government, princesses learn to draw, play music, sew…but I never cared for most of those things. Reading was always my first love."

"You were a princess," Gideon breathed looking more amazed by the second. "Are…of course. Then I'm…I'm a…" Gideon paused to shake his head, as if it might help him clear it or think better. "I'm sorry I just…Mother, the Black Fairy, she never spoke of you, only a name and that you were my mother. She never told me…what about your family?" Gideon asked suddenly. He leaned forward slightly on his toes, looking her over with intense curiosity. "Where are they? Are they dead like father's?"

She sighed as she walked back to the kitchen Gideon at her side. It made sense that the Black Fairy hadn't told him about her. She'd wanted to be his mother it made little sense to tell him about her if she wanted the task to herself. But how was she to pick up the pieces to that? How was she supposed to answer those questions?

"You are the first-born son of a first-born princess and the only child of a King and Queen," she answered. Starting with what he'd discovered about himself was a good first start as far as she was concerned. "And yes, that makes you a Prince, though it doesn't hold much sway in this world. And I always much preferred hard work over the task of running a kingdom.

"My mother, your grandmother, the Queen, I am sorry to say she's no longer with us. She died before I ever met your father in an ogre attack on our castle. She was very kind, you would have liked her, and she would have adored you. She's the one who taught me to love books. That's a trait I always wanted to give to you as well."

"And your father? My grandfather?" Gideon pressed. "Is he...'no longer with us' too?"

She sighed and quickly made busy work of her hands by whipping together some gravy for the potatoes. What to tell him? How to tell him? He'd had a difficult life already and wanted nothing more for him than to come here and learn that life could be better. She didn't want to spoil it yet by revealing it wasn't perfect. But to not answer his question...that would make her no better than the Black Fairy, who hid things from him for her own gain. This life was filled with disappointment too, she only hoped that compared to what he'd been through already she could lessen the blow.

"Your grandfather is alive," she admitted carefully. "He works in a flower store not far from the pawn shop but…I'm afraid that relationship is a bit strained at the moment. He doesn't particularly care for my relationship with your father, and that's created tension that has come and gone over the years, but at the moment it seems here to stay. Here, taste this."

The conversation made her uncomfortable, and the only thing she could think to do was distract him by pulling a spoon from a drawer, dipping it in the gravy, and handing it to her son. His eyes lit up as he held it in his mouth and then opened and closed it as if tasting it several times before smiling.

"It's delicious!"

"Good. I'm glad you like it," she smiled taking the spoon back. "That should be all we need until your father gets here."

"Have you always done all the cooking?" Gideon asked.

She had to shake her head, but was at least happy that Gideon had found something else to talk about. "Not always. Rumple is good at it as well. It's something we both love to do so much we've never been able to do it together. I think we both love it too much to share."

"Maybe...maybe that means I'll come to love it too! Once I get settled of course."

"Maybe you will..." Behind her a bit of the simmering gravy had bubbled and popped sending a bit of it splattering over her pristine countertops. She sighed as she located the rag she liked to keep handy. "The cleaning, on the other hand, has always been my task. If left to it alone your father would live in his own dust for centuries. He has lived in his own dust for centuries!" she explained scrubbing the counter clean again and lowering the heat. "Or at least he did until I came around."

"But you are a princess…wouldn't you have had maids for a service like that. Like Tabitha had in _Her Handsome Hero_?"

So many questions. She'd never known that so many questions could cause so much stir, that even the simplest of them would be difficult. This question, in particular, she remembered not being happy about explaining it all to Neal when the pair of them had arrived at the Dark Castle. She thought she'd only just barely survived that but to do it again and tell her son…this was difficult.

"I was the maid, actually." Finally, she decided that debating it in her head wasn't going to be helpful. She'd told him a lot of things very carefully today, trying not to upset or overwhelm, trying not to confuse him, but this was one answer she wasn't sure she had to tread lightly with, not with Gideon. She turned on her heel and leaned against the cabinets once more, crossing her arms over her chest and trying to breathe deep. She'd done this once with Neal, she could do it again.

"When I met your father, my Kingdom was in the middle of a war, one we helped to start, but were losing and probably would have lost. Your father made a deal with my father, your grandfather, that he would free my Kingdom from the Ogres threatening it if I went with him and became the caretaker of his castle. My father wasn't going to allow it, but I knew our Kingdom wouldn't last long unless we did something so...I agreed. I went with your father and the Kingdom was saved."

Gideon grinned with his eyes wide and bright, almost like a child. "You're a hero."

"Well…I tried to be. Sometimes all it takes is doing what is brave and going with him certainly was brave, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. I had to teach myself how to clean and cook, how to launder clothes and run a house but in the end, I discovered I was really very good at it, and then your father and I fell in love and…there are a few stories missing, between then and now, but that's the important bit. That's the part that matters most."

Gideon opened his mouth, his smile still on his face but his eyes fell on something outside the kitchen that made that smile vanish quickly. Suddenly, his eyes carried a look of confusion and worry.

"What? What is it?"

He was staring out the kitchen, into the next room out a window. He wasn't answering her. She pushed herself off that counter and followed his gaze into the next room. She wasn't quite to the window when she heard a long roll of thunder. Outside, coming from the direction of Main Street was a black cloud. A cloud that didn't move like a normal storm cloud or anything she'd ever seen in the sky, at least not any natural thing she'd ever seen.

But she did recognize it. She recognized the way it was moving, the size of it, the determination with which it was swallowing the city piece by piece. As fast as it was moving it would be on them in seconds and then…who knew what would come next.

"Gideon?!" she cried out, attempting to run back to the kitchen.

"Mother?!"

His call was drowned out in a silence as everything she knew disappeared.

* * *

 **As someone who was really opposed to the musical episode (no offense to anyone who was Team Musical, I know I have a few of you. It's nothing personal, I just didn't like it probably for all the reasons you loved it. That being said...), I was really happy with it because it was set up in a way that didn't affect my writing whatsoever. Seriously. In the Enchanted Forest, Rumple was trapped which meant that Belle was locked away in her tower and with nothing to do even if she decided to belt out some kind of sad ballad there was no need for me to write it down. Rumple was aware of what was going on but bless you RC for making sure "Dark Ones don't sing". And then the only singing that anyone did in Storybrooke was really that evening. Still, when Belle sat down at the piano, I couldn't help but have her recall a lullaby she'd heard and for a moment I thought it was really out of place until I remembered that 6x20 was the musical episode and it would fit right in. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my one and only contribution to the musical episode. It seemed appropriate and realistic enough for me. Don't ask for the words, I don't have them. Just take it for what it is.**

 **Thank you, Fox24 and Grace5231973, for your reviews on the last chapter. I'm so glad that you have enjoyed these few Gideon/Belle chapters. In a way, this is really the last one you get to read for a while. Of course, MG has lots of lovely Belle/Gideon chapters but with Gideon being a baby again there won't be any really good one-on-one Belle and Gideon conversations until Moments Beyond. These were always meant to sort of give you a preview of that, of Gideon's personality when it's nurtured properly by someone who loves him. Hopefully, it's got you excited for what's to come. And on that note, you have only five chapters left in this fiction! Can't believe how close we are to Moments Grown! It seemed so far away when we began! I hope you are excited for it! I'm hoping you are going to love all the fluffy Rumbelle Familyness you'll find inside of it! Ficlet or not, it makes me happy. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	67. Safely Locked Doors

_Her morning began just as every morning had started for as long as she could remember, with locks. There were three of them that she had on the tiny door to her bedroom. She slept with them every single night. And every morning when she finally roused herself from sleep, her first task was always to press her ear to the door, listening for any whispers she could identify, and then, when she was certain she was safe and alone in her little house, pull back the top lock, unlatch the second and unsnap the lock on the knob._

 _She showered with the bathroom locked, even though she knew it was silly and no one besides her lived in this tiny space anymore. It gave her comfort to know the knob would open only when she was ready for it to. It helped her start her day right. After she finished her shower and dressed in her room, which was always relocked while she was in it, of course. Afterward, she continued on to her next task. Checking the locks. On all the doors. On all the windows. Everywhere that could be latched she checked to be sure that it was and that the lock was still sturdy and held in place, protecting her from the world outside her decrepit little house before she finally gave a sigh of relief and went to the kitchen to start her tea and some oatmeal for breakfast._

 _The house was quiet. She liked it that way since her parents had died. They, along with a very select few, had been her safeguard in this house since all her troubles began. It was the day she and her brother had been walking home from school, talking about math homework and English projects that needed to be done until their next family vacation to Paris that the unthinkable had happened._

 _A lone man had stepped out of a bush between school and their home. He'd been holding a knife. Her brother had immediately stood in front of her, shielding her from the man as he asked what he wanted and what he thought he was going to do with the knife. The man had never answered, just stared at her brother for several long seconds before lunging at him violently with the weapon. She remembered shrieking, crying, shouting for help as he attacked her brother over and over and over again, tearing his clothes into nothing but scraps and leaving his skin covered in blood. And then, with no explanation, no words, or even a threat, the man had jumped off of her brother and run away from the pair of them. Her brother was still breathing when she knelt by his side, but not very well. He was wheezing, she had enough sense to use her hands to try and put pressure against the wounds the, but there were too many. And soon enough she was kneeling not on the sidewalk but in a pool of her brother's blood, helpless as he died right before her eyes._

 _A stranger found them, and she remembered pushing herself away from the good Samaritan in fear as they approached wanting to help but all she'd been able to think about was knives and blood. She'd screamed. And clung to the body of her brother. Soon enough the area was flooded with people, police, onlookers, even the mayor showed up-strangers every last one of them! She checked their hands and saw no weapon, but still, she could help but think that any one of them was just as capable as that man had been. Her brother was packed up and taken to a hospital, and she overheard phrases like "random attack", "no description of him", and "difficult to solve". She felt the prickle of eyes on her back and a chill from her dead brother's blood seeping in through her clothes. She knew it would never come off her skin._

 _Her parents picked her up at the hospital that night, they drove home in silence all of them too shocked to say anything to anyone. The police had tried to question her, but she'd just pressed her back into a corner, shrinking as far away from the unfamiliar face as possible. That was the first night she'd slept with a lock on her door. The first night she'd ever checked her bedroom window to be sure it was locked and wouldn't open. The first night she'd closed her curtains to the great moon over her bed and wondered how safe she was even in this little space._

 _For a while, all that she'd known tolerated her newfound fear. It was "understandable," they said. "Surely after such a traumatic incident time must be taken to heal." But she never felt like she was healing. She felt like she was a raw nerve, open and exposed, and only in her safe little spaces was she covered._

 _The time for the trip to Paris came and went. Her brother was buried and she couldn't bring herself to put a single toe out the front door. Seasons changed and people began to come to the house to meet with her parents. They talked in whispers in the kitchen while she hid in her bedroom, but she listened anyway as the word "understandable" slowly began to be replaced by the word "clinical". Options were discussed, none of which she liked. The town psychiatrist was brought to her house. She didn't want to meet him, and he attempted talking to her through her door. And after jiggling the handle of her door to try and get in to see her, she'd insisted that her father add a second lock to her door, just in case._

 _Doctors were brought to their house to assess the situation when she wouldn't return to school. Her mother insisted that she was a smart girl, she could be taught from home, but no one liked the idea of giving her more freedom to stay where she was. She was getting worse, or so they said. She was of a different opinion, she wasn't getting worse, they were getting more insistent, and it only pushed her farther back into her cocoon._

 _Until one day she slipped on the kitchen floor. A pipe had cracked, and she had slipped on the water spill and hit her head on the way down to the floor. That was the start of her troubles, for while she'd been lucky, only requiring stitches for a shallow flesh wound on her head, they'd removed her from their home in her unconscious state and when she woke she found herself in the hospital and screamed._

 _They'd drugged her. Day in and day out and when she began to get resistant and fight back they'd strapped her to the bed. She begged to be allowed to go home but each day instead of things getting better they'd only gotten worse. They'd begun to use words like "crazy" and "disabled" and somehow she found herself in Storybrooke's asylum, begging for release, growing more and more fearful by the second._

 _It took her parents a year to get her out of that place. And once they had, it seemed only by magic that they'd managed it. The mayor had walked into her room, a small padded cell, with her parents. She was a strong figure, but let off an auror of kindness. She seemed safe and maternal. And she watched as she shouted at the doctors to release her back to her parents, saying that she'd had enough trauma for one lifetime. As they began the paperwork to free her, she wondered why the mayor hadn't had children._

 _The moment she got home she'd run into her bedroom, locked both the locks and realized that she needed a third, a strong one, just to know that this room was her own._ _Her parents alone seemed understanding. Her father installed the lock and sealed the windows on her bedroom so they wouldn't open anymore. Her mother told her it was fine, that they would figure this out together, she was safe in their home, and that was what mattered. But her parents couldn't stay forever. They had business to attend to, and she was often left alone in the house day in and day out as they did their work outside the house. Until the day that everything changed._

 _Her father announced that he and her mother would be leaving Storybrooke, only for a short time, that a grandmother she'd had outside of Storybrooke was doing poorly and they had to go look after her for a while. But she shouldn't worry, the mayor had recommended a nice young woman they'd hired to help her in their absence. It was Maddie, a beautiful woman with dark skin and hair who had been in her class at school. It was Maddie who would bring her groceries, take in the mail, all the things that they usually did when they were around. Though the idea of being alone made her nervous, she understood that it was better than starving to death, or going back to the asylum and the crowded halls that came with it._

 _Maddie was wonderful. She kept her distance. Every Saturday, she unlocked the front door and waited until she heard the footsteps on the front porch. She retreated into her bedroom, and Maddie let herself in with that week's groceries. She spoke to her through the bedroom wall, told her about what she was reading and what was happening in the world. Then she left the mail on the table, picked up the list of groceries and books from the library for the next week, uttered good-bye and left. It was exactly what she needed, a non-threatening presence, and predictable too! Maddie worked like clockwork._

 _When the police had come to her door nearly a month after Maddie started, she had receded again, hiding in her bedroom, not understanding the pounds at the door or her phone ringing constantly. Slowly the reality that something horrible had happened seeped into her, and she held her breathe each time she heard it, wondering if it would go away._

 _The following Saturday, she was so terrified of it that Maddie had to use her spare key to get into the house. She could hear in her footsteps that something was wrong, that something was different about this particular visit. She heard her sigh as she sat her groceries and books on the table._

 _"Hey Belle," she muttered gently, her tone was a far cry from the chipper amiable one she usually spoke in. And then she heard the impossible. Maddie pulled a chair out in her kitchen, she could hear it scrape against the floor and the creak as she sat down. "So, there are two officers outside. They say they've been coming every day for a while now, but you won't answer your door or your phone. I explained the situation to them and told them I'd tell you. It's about your parents, Belle. I'm sorry to have to tell you this but…"_

 _They were dead._

 _Both of them._

 _On their return to Storybrooke their car had been struck by a drunk driver. They had been killed instantly. The news hit her hard. It was devastating. But she mourned alone and in silence, Maddie, her only friend as she waded through the sea of papers and documents that accompanied a tragedy like this. She never spoke to Maddie, but somehow she realized they'd come to a silent agreement that the kitchen table was their home base. When Maddie had something for her to sign or look over she left it on the table. After she was gone, she finished the documents and left them there for the next time she returned. For a long while, Maddie was forced to come to her home every day with paperwork, information about funerals and services and lawyers and documents. Maddie took each on back and forth safely and all the while continued to bring her groceries and books. Without Maddie, she knew she would have died._

 _Even now she was still dependent upon Maddie for food and several other smaller tasks that she couldn't bring herself to do. But she was vastly aware that it wasn't enough. Though her parents had left her a great sum of money the idea of having people at the house scared her and she was aware that though she kept the inside of her domain spotless, on the outside her sacred space was falling into disrepair. She'd gotten notices in the mail, Maddie had told her that she was worried what would happen to her if she didn't make a change and she was worried too. Somewhere, in the dark recesses of her mind, she envisioned the big bulky men that she had known from the asylum coming into her home, bursting through her bedroom door and hauling her back to that awful place. Maybe she should call the mayor. Maybe she could help..._

 _From the living room, she heard the cuckoo clock chime, and she took a deep breath as she realized she was late. It was Saturday. Maddie would be here in a few hours, and she had lists to make. At noon she'd unlock her door, just as she did every Saturday for Maddie, and she'd count down the minutes until she could lock it again._

* * *

 **Oh, the return of the italics. You know what that means. It's a curse! And I started this curse like I have all the curses where memories have been "rearranged" with a carefully crafted backstory. Why was Belle the way she was in those episodes? She needed something that would have the power to keep her where she was and yet I didn't want her story to be too different than the original curse because it seemed like the Black Fairy crafted her curse after that. Because of that, I used some traits of her past story as well as her own personal history to keep her where she is. It was more than just the asylum. Did her big brother sound familiar? In my mind, it's Neal. And remember when I said that Rapunzel was going to get a little cameo later in the fiction? Three guesses who Maddie is. Now, I've been getting a lot of questions as to how Belle knew Rumple's mother was also responsible for the curse if she believed her to be dead. I hope this answers that in some way. After all, she did make herself the mayor.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973, Fox24, and Rumbellefan for your reviews! I'm so happy that everyone enjoyed the Belle/Gideon bonding time. I enjoyed writing it! I always knew I enjoyed Rumbelle stuff but this fiction taught me that I really do like writing about the Gold Family as well. I'm excited for Winter when you'll get to read their story on a grander scale, but for now, I just hope that you are getting excited for the start of Moments Grown, since it's pretty much fluffy goodness. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	68. Her Worst Fears

_She was as ready for Maddie as she could be. The house was as clean as she could get it, the lists for next week were on the table, and the table was empty so that Maddie would have all the room she needed to set things aside. She unlocked the front door, just as she always did, then went back into her bedroom, locked her locks, and sat down to read. It was nothing but a poor attempt to distract herself from the fact someone, anyone, could enter through the front door._

 _Maddie was late, so late she was nearly sweating with nerves when she finally heard footsteps outside the house, and the door opened and closed. She sighed with relief when Maddie hollered out an apology and told her something about her car battery dying on her before she went to the store. She'd had to call her parents, her father gave her a jump and took her car to the shop while she drove his so she could get everything she needed._

 _Maddie talked, she listened as she heard her put the cold things into the refrigerator and leave the non-perishable items for her just as she always did. She heard her straighten the mail and place it onto the table, probably in the upper right-hand corner just as she always did. Then she gave the same sigh she always did when she looked over her requests._

 _"One of the books you wanted wasn't at the library, I'll put it back on the list and look for it next week too," she explained. "I'll see you next week, if you need anything before then or want to hang out give me a call!" Maddie always said that before leaving. Even though, not once in all the years she could remember her working for her she'd ever given her a call. A moment later she heard the door close, she heard the footsteps outside die away, and the start of a car engine. She pulled her three locks free and practically sprinted to the front door, throwing herself at it and locking it once more. Safe, alone, and quiet. That was the way she liked it._

 _She returned to the kitchen to put away what Maddie hadn't. She stacked her cans perfectly, she added the stacks of books to her reading corner. She looked through the mail and tossed most of the junk but went into her parent's bedroom, where she kept the checkbook so that she could write a check for the Storybrooke electric company which needed to go out next week so she'd have-_

 _She jumped._

 _There was a loud thud that had just come from outside, a sound loud enough to make her jump up from the bed and drop her checkbook to the ground._ _What was that? A branch? An animal? A murderer? A thief? All seemed quiet, and she wondered…was it…could it be safe to check. After all maybe…maybe she was just jumping to conclusions. Maybe Maddie had forgotten something. Maybe the wind had blown something against the house. People always told her that her fear was irrational. Maybe that was it. Perhaps she was just being irrational._

 _With a hard swallow, she went to the window at the front of the house, her parent's bedroom. The shades were drawn just as they always were with fabric so thick no one could see in and she didn't have to see out. Her fingers shook as she parted the little space between them and pulled them back. Her heart beat wildly against her chest and a lump formed in her throat._

 _No animal. No branch. A man was coming up her walkway, striding forward! She'd never seen him before, but the way he moved scared her. There was such purpose in his stride and the way he was dressed, he looked like the man who had attacked her brother, like someone who might carry a knife or some other kind of weapon and kill someone, a woman, helplessly, before they could do anything about it. Or…what if he was here to take her away? Back to the asylum?! Out of her house! No, she couldn't even imagine!_

 _She should hide, she knew that she should, but she couldn't help but watch him as he strode forward and finally picked something up off of the ground at the bottom of her porch steps. It was a book of some-_

 _She gasped and quickly moved away from the curtains. He'd looked up at her! When he'd straightened himself out he'd looked up into the window and they might have made eye contact for a moment before she had time to close the curtains and move away, hoping, praying he wouldn't understand, that he'd think it was a trick of the light or his eyes playing tricks on him. He seemed older, maybe his eyes didn't work right. Maybe he'd think it was the heat on in the house that moved the curtains…or maybe not._

 _She heard feet on the stairs up to the house…she recognized the sound from when Maddie arrived with her groceries every week! She ran around the bed, desperate for a place to hide but couldn't fit herself into the closet with all the clothes that she'd owned since she was five. And it was so stupid to try! The closet was always the first place strangers looked! She'd seen movies, she'd read books! That was no place to hide!_

 _She managed to quickly move into the kitchen and was nearly in tears when she heard the door open, her mind screaming at her that she had locked the door! It wasn't possible! She ducked behind the stove, it was the only thing she could think to do, the only place she could quietly hide. She could barely breathe. No one but Maddie had been in this house since her parents left her! Now there was a stranger. She didn't know his name, his job, why he was here, why he'd let himself in, or even how! She never forgot to lock the door after Maddie left! She was sure she hadn't this time!_

 _She was going to pass out. Her brain wasn't getting enough oxygen and squatting there on the floor panting as she tried to make herself as small as possible was making her light-headed. Maybe he'd leave. She hoped to God he would leave!_

 _"Belle?" The man was yelling, calling out a name and she was shaking uncontrollably but she couldn't make her body move the way she wanted it to. She felt paralyzed with fear. He knew her name! He didn't have the wrong house! He knew her name and the space she'd have to run to the safety of her bedroom seemed like a mile from here! She hoped he'd check the bedroom first, the closet, give her a chance to be brave and run to her room. If he knew her name, it could only mean one thing!_

 _But his footsteps didn't get more distant, they only got closer, and closer, and-_

 _She ducked her head down when she saw his form at the threshold to her kitchen and tried not to cry out or let tears escape from her eyes for fear of the sound they would make when they fell to the floor. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be happening! This was supposed to be a normal day!_

 _But it was happening. The man spotted her as if this had been no game at all. She prayed that she was invisible, that his eyes were seeing through her instead into her, but she knew it was impossible, that he was, in fact, seeing her. She'd been found._

 _"Belle?" he questioned stepping forward. With every inch he came closer she felt her fear in a painful way, as though he was stepping on her very skin and bones!_

 _"I don't want to leave! I don't want to leave!" she tried to scream. Her throat was so dry she could hardly get the words out! And she couldn't risk that he might grab her and force her out!_

 _"Please!" she screamed running across the room and into her bedroom, the safest corner of her house! She slammed the door shut and locked it before pushing her body against it for extra protection. But the door was flimsy, just like the rest of the house. He was a big man, if he wanted to run against it she was certain that he wouldn't take much for him to knock it in and then what?_

 _"Belle?" the man muttered on the other side of the door._

 _She tried to breathe as she pressed herself close. "How do you know my name?" she asked through the door with fear. Was it because he was from the hospital? Was he here for her? Had someone finally come to get her and take her away again? If they had, she wasn't sure she could do anything to stop it! He would certainly be part of a group, and even if he couldn't bring her in single-handedly, he'd bring other's back who could._

 _"I can explain if you give me a chance." She wanted to cry out when she heard more footsteps that came closer to her. Why did he have to come closer?!_

 _"Leave me alone, okay, I'm safe here!" she begged, trying to sound as normal as possible. Maybe all she had to do was convince him, convince the doctors, and the hospital people and everyone that she was fine! That she was safe, that she could take care of herself! Maybe if he saw that he'd leave!_

 _"Belle, I-I know this is difficult to understand but…you're not like this," he stated through the door. She was working on her breathing, trying to focus on his words so that she wouldn't faint out of shock and hyperventilation as she had so many times as a teenager. If that happened, she'd be defenseless, and there would be no denying he'd have to take her to the hospital. No…she couldn't let that happen. She had to breathe! "The Black Fairy did this to you. Changed you. I promise you, the woman who did this, I am going to make her pay," the man growled._

 _The growl scared her. It made her cry out. She didn't understand anything that he was saying, none of it made sense. Was he crazy? Just as crazy as the man who had killed her brother? If she left this room, he might kill her!_

 _"Please just go!" she begged. "Please!"_

 _"Belle, I'm not going to hurt you," he promised._

 _That's what they all said before they stuck her with needles. They were never trying to hurt her they were only trying to help her and yet her skin twitched and itched at the very memories._

 _"Go away! I don't need help! I'm fine here on my own! Please! Go away!"_

 _"Belle-"_

 _"Go away!" she screamed so loud she knew her voice would be hoarse. "Go away please!"_

 _There was no answer from the other side of the door. Just slow timid footsteps in the kitchen then clear heavy ones through the house as the stranger walked back through the hallway and closed the door behind him._

* * *

 **Pretty straightforward chapter. Nothing really that we haven't seen before. I did my best to give Maddie (Rapunzel) as many hints as I could in this chapter since you won't ever see what I imagined her cursed persona to be. What greater curse for a girl in a tower with no friends, than for her only friend to be stuck in a tower, right? And as for Rumple I wanted to handle his bit quickly and focus more on Belle so that it really made his statements seem like they were coming out of nowhere.**

 **Thank you, Grace5231973 and Fox24, for your reviews on the last chapter. The curse stuff isn't always the easiest or the best stuff to read but I appreciate it! In the next chapter the curse breaks, which might seem quick but really, for the Black Fairy being all-powerful, she didn't really make that strong of a curse. It barely lasted a day. You failed, Black Fairy. You went up against your son and you failed miserably. How's that for irony? Peace and Happy Reading!**


	69. Shock and Awe

She gasped when she felt it.

There was a moment of surprise. But only one moment. It was a feeling that she'd had so many times that it hardly shocked her anymore.

The breaking of a curse.

Her memories had been trapped, locked away in her mind just as she had been locked away in this little room, this entire house.

Trapped.

It was a feeling like she'd so often had when she sat huddled together in her asylum. She didn't like being trapped. But she was now. She'd trapped herself in this room. Huddled there on the floor, her back against the door her knees to her chest, her cheeks soaked with tears of fear. Fear that had washed away with the breaking of one curse and revealed an older more oppressive fear spawned from another curse. And suddenly her chest heaved as she sucked in a breath. The walls of the tiny room...they were closing in on her.

Out! She had to get out! Right now!

At once she rose up off the floor and began to pluck at the locks on the door. The one in the middle stuck. She couldn't get the hook lock to unlatch, her fingers were shaking too much. In the end, her desperation was so great that she gave the door two sharp tugs and it broke, freeing her from her prison. She didn't look back, she ran through the tiny house, the walls shrinking around her with every step and burst through the front door before it could trap inside once more.

The air was cool. But it felt good. Each breath scraped against her lungs as she inhaled deeply. Freedom. Wide open space! What a wonderful thing!

Still, even in the cool air, her head spun and reeled, and she fell down upon the steps of her cursed prison. She ran her fingers through her hair as she gulped in the air and tried to catch her breath. But her need for silence was quickly interrupted by the noise confusion. All around her people who lived on this block poured out onto the street. This wasn't like it had been in the past. The broken curses of the past had brought with them tears, shouts of happiness, and cries for lost family members but now…the overwhelming feeling on all their faces was confusion.

They'd been cursed. But it hadn't been for very long. Her memories were hazy, just as they always were after a curse but when she searched her memory, she was certain that it had been less than a day; that it was only last night that she'd looked out the window and seen that great black cloud coming for her and her son and…

"Rumple," she breathed, looking around, her head clearing with every gulp. He'd been here. He'd been in this house, he'd been in there looking for her. He'd been awake. He'd been what had forced her to go into that room to hide, to lock herself in! In her confusion the words had been terrifying but now...what had he said? He'd make the person who was responsible pay. The woman who had done this to her. The Black Fairy. Yes. She was there, in her false memories. She'd made herself the mayor, taking the place of Regina, playing the hero who had encouraged her freedom from the asylum so she could imprison herself in this spit of a house behind her!

She hadn't been dead. Rumple hadn't killed her. He'd lied or been tricked or...

Her heart nearly stopped as her mind began to work through scenario after scenario, as she recognized person after person from her memories but noticed one very important individual was missing from them.

Gideon.

If the Black Fairy was still alive, what had she done with Gideon?!

She pushed herself off the steps, her legs still felt like a wobbly mess, but she made herself move that thought aside as she caught her bearings and headed toward the shop. She had no cell phone on her and wasn't sure she could focus long enough to make the call even if she was able to remember the number or get back inside that house. But Main Street wasn't far, and if she was to begin looking for Gideon, then the shop was the best place. Sturdy or not, the hammering of her heart and the fear she felt for her son helped her to run the entire way, ignoring the people on the street beside her, pushing through a couple of horded masses of them when necessary.

They were confused, all of them were. They hadn't been expecting trouble, much less a curse! There was little doubt in her mind, they'd had little interaction with the Black Fairy. Half of them probably had never even known she was here! As far as most of the town was concerned she'd entered the town and perished without them being any wiser. Though she supposed that was wrong. It had to be. She hadn't perished. Not as Rumple claimed. How this had all happened after she was supposed to have died she was at a loss to understand. But it was the first thing she was going to ask of her husband as soon as she knew he and her son were safe! She didn't know where her family was, but she assumed that if her husband had found her then he may have found Gideon. She'd be sure they were both safe first, that the danger had passed, then she'd question how this had happened.

She felt a small bit of relief when she turned and saw the sign hanging above the shop and a bit of shock as she realized that it was different. "Gold and Son".

"Gideon!" she breathed with relief. Was it possible that Gideon was safe, nearly at home this entire time with Rumple?

"Rumple?" she called out, baring into the shop despite the "closed" sign on the front. Her lungs were burning and she was desperate to sit for just a moment, but she could tell right away that something wasn't right, that something had happened, something bad.

He'd already been standing in the main room away from the counter staring at the door like he'd expected her to come barging in. And now he was looking at her…she hadn't noticed how tense he'd been until he sighed and began to relax at the sight of her.

"Belle," he muttered.

"Yeah," she smiled, happy that she remembered him once more, that the curse was over and so soon! A day, barely a day, but why had that happened! And where was Gideon? "I'm awake the curse is broken."

But Rumple didn't look happy, he didn't look as overjoyed as she felt at it all. He looked sad as he looked down at his feet.

"When I killed her…"

She stared down at the floor and noticed for the first time that in the space between them there was a pile of dirt there. The only problem was that he never swept, and there was no reason for him to be sad over a pile of dirt. And there was even less reason for a fairy wand, the Black Fairy's wand, to be sitting on top of that pile of dirt.

If he'd "killed her" then…ashes.

"You killed your mother?"

Rumple nodded. It was a gesture so small that if she wasn't looking at him directly in the eyes, wanting him to look up at her, then she would never have noticed it. He'd killed her. Her mind begged to know why he hadn't done that in the first place? Why this had all happened when only a day ago he'd declared that they were all safe. She hadn't been safe in that little house. She'd felt safe there, but never known that she wasn't. And she hadn't been the only one.

Gideon.

He was here, in this world all alone, unsure what to do they had to find him because clearly he wasn't in this shop! Rumple had been awake during the curse, he'd found her…he had to know where Gideon was as well!

"Where's Gideon?" she questioned, doing her best to get him to focus on what was really important.

Finally, he picked his eyes up off the floor. "Ah…I don't know…"

He seemed more than sad. He seemed tired, perhaps a bit distracted which was a word she rarely used to describe her husband. He was always so focused, to be distracted when his son was missing…

"Still under her control," he muttered. "But I think I know who to ask…Henry."

She nodded as he reached into his pocket to retrieve his cell phone, but she was working on putting together all that he'd told her. Still under her control? Gideon was still under the Black Fairy's control he meant? But…but his heart. He'd put it back. Unless she'd done it in the curse. What was happening here? The Black Fairy was gone, but if Gideon was still under her control, a bit of her magic remained. And she knew exactly what the Black Fairy would do with a final request. She would want Darkness to win. Gideon would kill Emma. The Black Fairy would live on. The fear seized her immediately.

"C-c-can you stop him?" she questioned as her heart raced.

"I don't intend to stop him," Rumple muttered as he dialed. "I intend to save him." He placed the phone to his ear and she waited in anticipation.

She was trying to make sense out of all of this, out of everything that he was trying to tell her but instead he kept his phone pressed to his ear and they both held their breath waiting for Henry to answer. But he never did. In the end, Rumple pulled the phone away and shook his head, looking down at it almost shocked.

"He's not answering." She watched as he pushed buttons, dialing again. He waited, then shook his head again. "Henry...I know you were awake. The Black Fairy has Gideon's heart, and I have to find it. Emma's in danger. Call me when you get this." He hung up. But again he pushed buttons, calling back and she couldn't take it anymore. They couldn't just keep calling Henry until he picked up! He was flustered, becoming more and more agitated but she needed him to be on point right now. Focused! Not scatterbrained.

"Rumple," she stepped over the fairy wand and pile of ashes on the ground and grabbed his hand. Standing here, far apart, with the remains of his mother between them wasn't helping anything. But when she pulled on his wrist he followed her into the back room without hesitation. She hoped that away from all of that he would be able to clear his mind.

"The Black Fairy is gone, but she still has control over Gideon, you are absolutely sure?!"

He nodded. It was a fervent nod, committed. There was not a doubt in his mind about this.

"This is her curse, the final battle between good and evil. In order for the curse to set permanently she has to destroy the light magic in the world."

"Emma."

"But she hit a roadblock, translated some ruins and learned that the Dark wasn't powerful enough to destroy the Light, only Light working on behalf of Darkness."

"Gideon."

"She's got his heart, ordered him to kill the Savior."

"And what happens if Gideon succeeds and kills Emma?"

"Trust me when I say you don't want to know that…"

It was all it took to strike fear into her heart. "Shouldn't her death mean that her magic dies with her."

"That's why the curse was broken, but possession of a heart is different. It's a command. If man gives a dog a command to retrieve then dies of a heart attack the dog still retrieves. The orders my mother gave to Gideon need to be reversed. If not he'll continue on with her wishes until he succeeds. We have to get his heart back. There's no other way."

She was breathless with his confession, but finally understood the weight of what was happening or at least what was going on here.

"Okay, Rumple…we need to hurry, and you need to think. Where would she hide Gideon's heart?"

"I-I don't know, it could be anywhere in Storybrooke!"

Anywhere in Storybrooke, they didn't have time to search all of Storybrooke. There had to be some way, something that he knew.

"Rumple," she took another step forward and squeezed his hand between her own, doing what she could to get him to meet her gaze. "Her entire plan hinges on Gideon's heart, it's the most important thing to her right now. If it were you, if you were hiding the dagger, how would you go about doing it?"

He shook his head. "I'd put it somewhere safe, somewhere…somewhere not frequented by people. But still somewhere in plain sight."

"Like the clocktower."

"Yes," he breathed. "Or somewhere that I know no one would look because it's already been searched or used to…"

His voice trailed off and she felt her heart leap. She knew that look. He'd thought of something.

"Rumple?" she pressed applying more pressure to his hand. The sun was going down, outside it was getting darker by the second. They had to figure this out.

"I have an idea…"

* * *

 **This scene...this stupid ass scene! Yeah, it looks good when you first watch it, but the moment you go back and rewatch the show, it's the most confusing thing in the world! There is so much in here that is assumed and unexplained. Like, yeah, if the Black Fairy is dead, how is her command to Gideon living on? I did my best to explain that one. And then there's this...why is Gold calling Henry? How does he know that Henry would know where Gideon's heart is? And, I'm sorry writers, but newsflash, Henry may have been awake but he never found Gideon's heart, so how did Belle and Rumple find it? Henry, he couldn't tell them where it was! Not to mention, in the next scene Belle went on to say something like "how do you know it's here?" So now Gold knows where it is?! Not Henry? Whew! This chapter...it was a bitch trying to bridge the gaps. I did my best to write around those little flaws and make it so that everything worked. I tried to make Belle's assumptions fall into place. I tried to make it so Rumple never got in touch with Henry. I tried to make it so that they could find the heart on their own. I hope I succeeded.**

 **Thank you, thank you, thank you, Fox24 and Rumbellefan, for your comments on the last chapter! Despite this chapter, as we head into these last two chapters, I hope that you'll feel like everything was accounted for and well wrapped up. There's been a lot of work to prepare us for what is to come. I hope that you'll be pleased with the end result. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	70. A Magical Bloodhound

"The mines!" she exclaimed when the smoke cleared. It was dark; the sun fully set, the last stretches of light were just waiting to die along the horizon. She hadn't recognized the blackness when they first arrived in the little pit, but after her eyes adjusted she was very aware of what the black shape in front of her was. The mine.

"It's where my mother has been operating since she got here. Difficult to find because of the fairy dust, shrouded in shadow, it's a place that she felt safe, and a place she would feel even safer about leaving Gideon's heart because I know about it. This is where she was keeping the Blue Fairy. She would assume that I would think she wouldn't hide something in the same place twice. But…I can still feel her magic here."

"Then follow it!" she shrieked, wondering why they were still standing here.

The fact that he could still feel her magic was all that she'd needed to hear, and he didn't need to be told twice. He was off like a rocket, into the mines, and barreling through like a hound dog who had just picked up a fox's scent. He showed no fear. She, on the other hand, could feel the fingers of paranoia creeping up along her spine. It was quiet. But the blood rushing in her head echoed in her ears and sounds of drips from melting snow plopped around her, making her feel uneasy. It was like being trapped in a pipe, or a sewer. This would work, wouldn't it? They didn't have time to search all of Storybrooke, this was where they needed to be. Wasn't it?

"Why did you think Henry would know where the heart was?" she questioned as they moved through the tunnel. Conversation. She needed something to listen to beyond the water running down the walls. This place felt like it was haunted. Though she'd seen the ashes herself this time, she felt like every time she turned around the Black Fairy might be watching them.

"Because he was awake," he answered as they appeared at a fork in the mines. Rumple looked left and right, then chose right without any deliberation.

"How?"

"I don't know how, but he was on to what was happening. My mother cursed Emma Swan into disbelief, and Henry was trying to make her believe again. I hoped that in all of that he might have an idea where Gideon's heart was. We may never know now."

With any luck, it wouldn't matter. They'd find the heart and rescue Gideon. Whether or not Henry had figured out all of her secrets would be irrelevant.

"How were you awake? How did you find me?"

"I was awake because I didn't trust my mother, not completely," he explained moving on ahead of her. His words were breathless but soothing in the midst of all of this. When it got so dark she could hardly see, his voice was something that she could cling to. "I lied to you, the night I said I destroyed her. I fell for the same old story believing that with her new curse I could have not just you and magic but my mother as well. I let her go to cast her curse but didn't trust her entirely so I took the same potion Zelena wanted me to take before she cast her own curse. It kept my memories intact. It was just a precaution. And when I woke up the next morning and Gideon was down the hall, but you were missing, all traces of you gone from the house, I knew my instincts were right and my trust misplaced. I had to fix it."

Suddenly he reached behind and grabbed her arm, pulling her farther into the mines with him so that they were side by side again.

"I'm sorry, Belle," he muttered as they walked on. She could hear the emotion in his voice but all the while he never took his eyes off of what was right in front of him. "You gave me another chance, you gave me your trust, and I'm afraid I failed you again."

"No," she responded as they walked. She much rather would have pulled him aside and taken his hands in her own, but there simply wasn't the time. They were racing against his mother and every second was necessary. "Rumple, you haven't failed me because you are fixing it now! All that matters right now is our son. We have to save him from carrying out the Black Fairy's orders and we will! You will! I know we will."

But he was suddenly silent, voicing neither his opinion of belief nor of doubt. He was simply determined. Until…

They arrived at another fork, but this one was more than two choices. It was four. She watched as he carefully examined each way, looking down all of them, wasting precious seconds trying to make up his mind!

"This one!" he finally determined, choosing the one farthest to the left. He was off again, and she gulped in an effort to regain some of her bravery. They didn't have time to search twice or be wrong. All it would take was one misstep, one miscalculation or wrong turn could seal Gideon's fate and the Black Fairy's plan.

She stumbled for a moment and had to reach out onto the rock beside her to steady herself as they made another turn.

"You think his heart's down here?" she breathed as he continued on. She was getting nervous. He hadn't sensed Gideon's heart, he'd sensed magic. And the terrain was getting rougher. They'd been walking for a while now with nothing to show for it, they couldn't afford to have guessed wrong.

"I know my mother," he responded confidently. "This is where she'd hide it," Rumple muttered, walking quickly down the cave. It was hard to keep up with him, and she wished she had a light. And a clue, something to assure her that he was on the right trail and these weren't just guesses. If he said the heart was in the mines, then she believed him, but the mines were just as extensive as Storybrooke. They could walk down here for days. "If I find it-"

She let out a sharp gasp as she tripped and felt a pain shoot through her leg…the bad one. The one she couldn't injure.

Her hand automatically grasped for his hand and she fell so hard that she nearly took him down with her.

"Belle, you alright?" he questioned, stopping so that she could get a semblance of her balance back. But when she tried to stand upright, tried to put weight on her legs…

No.

No, she wasn't alright!

Her ankle, the one that she'd broken and he'd healed…pain radiated from along the side up through the calf ending just before her knee. It wasn't broken again, but just like she had in the mine shaft under the library she could feel the injure right down to her bones.

No. No, this wasn't happening again, not now!

"My ankle I think it's twisted," she admitted.

"Well let me fix it!"

"No, no!" she shook her head. When Regina had fixed it in the mine shaft, it had taken her nearly five minutes. It was already dark out, and after all that he'd told her about the final battle and what was at stake, she was certain that he didn't have five minutes to spare. And going with him would only slow him down. Gideon was the priority. He had to go.

"Just go ahead! We're racing against the clock! Don't let me slow you down! Go! Save Emma! Our son!"

He'd gotten the message halfway through her orders so that she had to yell the last bit. She expected more of a fight, more questioning and arguing, but by the time she turned her head he was already walking down the mine once more, the bloodhound on his mission.

* * *

 **Now, if I've done my job right, this little "oh I twisted my ankle, you can't possibly heal me with a wave of your magical hand, go on without me" should make a lot more sense and be a lot less pathetic than it was when we first saw it. And, to my memory, it never was really explained why Rumple had his memory, so I went ahead and invented my own little story that made sense. I never saw Rumple trusting the Black Fairy entirely just because he never trusts anyone entirely. Having the Black Fairy know the truth while he didn't would have given her a power over him and I doubt that would ever have sat well. It made sense that he would use what he had learned from his past to his advantage and give the Black Fairy the slip.**

 **Thank you to Grace5231973, Fox24, Rumbellefan, and OUAT Fan for your reviews! Sorry, this chapter turned out so short. Fair warning, the last one is short too. On the one hand, I'm sorry I couldn't make this chapter and the next one chapter, but on the other hand, after reading my stuff, I don't think anyone would have expected me to combine these two chapters. So I don't feel so bad about it. Peace and Happy Reading!**


	71. A New Beginning

A minute passed by like it was weeks. Not hours or days or nights. Weeks.

It was cold. She was shaking. From somewhere in the distance she could hear water continuing to drip and trickle down the walls of the caverns. It turned her shakes to shivers.

She'd huddled herself together on the rock he'd left her on. Of all the things on her mind it felt petty and ridiculus to so much as take note of how her ankle burned red hot with pain even as she sat, but she couldn't help it. She'd tried to push through it, to get up and walk half a dozen times, to follow after him, but each time she'd come crashing down. It wasn't broken, but the injury sustained was greater than what she'd experienced in the mines beneath the library. She couldn't support her own weight. There was nothing to do now but sit and wait and wonder. She hadn't been able to take her eyes off the shadow that she'd last seen him disappear into.

He'd do this. He'd make it right. Gideon was his son. He was going to fix this. He'd messed up with his mother, allowed her to get into his head somehow just as she'd warned but she was gone now, nothing but a pile of ash and dust, and Rumple saw the mistake now! She could see it in his eyes, it was the only thing that made whatever had happened forgivable. That, and compared to the risk of losing their son, hating him and fighting him over that at the moment would have been wrong. She knew the man he was. He wasn't going to lose this opportunity to help Gideon. The only one stopping him would be himself, and she knew that he wouldn't do that. They'd already lost one son. Still, she knew deep down that it wasn't the cold that was making her shake in this little cave, it was fear. He could do this...so long as they didn't run out of time.

With all the drips and noises of the cave, she'd jumped at every one, but the shadows were so thick now that she hadn't realized until he was nearly on top of her that he was coming back. He was walking toward her, and she held her breath waiting for news, even as she observed the way he dragged his feet in shock. Her mind sent out a warning to brace herself, but somehow she couldn't figure out a way to do it that might be sufficient.

"I've failed you, Belle."

His words were a whisper, but they echoed across the hall so that each one hit her over and over again, ringng in her ears. Each one an ugly gray stone falling into the pit of her stomach.

"I failed our family."

No.

She stared up at him in confusion because she didn't understand it. She didn't want to understand, she couldn't bear to believe what he was saying! He hadn't been in time? He hadn't found the heart?

He was holding something in his hand. Something black. She couldn't understand. But he was so certain….

"I made the right choice…it just didn't work out."

It was as if he was speaking a different language. The words didn't make sense to her. They didn't sound like words and yet she felt every last one of them. Understanding eluded her at the most basic of levels and she wasn't sure if it would ever return to her or if she would ever be ready to listen to it. She wasn't sure she'd ever be able to accept it.

The black object in his hand, it was black as coal, and she could only just barely make it out...it was a heart. Gideon's. She knew that just as she knew the sun would rise. But it was black? What had happened? How? Emma was dead? Gideon had killed her and now he was…

What did it matter how it happened, it was done. It was done. Gideon's heart was black, and she didn't know if that meant he was Dark now or if he was dead too!

She shook her head as she fought to stand. He was quick to reach down for her, to give her his arm to lean on and guide her. Even in the dark, she could see the tears in his eyes. But words escaped her. She couldn't think of a single thing to say that would comfort him. And she was certain that there was nothing he could say to give it to her at the moment. All she could do was put her arms around his neck and hold on for dear life, for the little that she had left. What their son was, or where he was, or what would happen to him was unknown. But Rumple was here, he was real and the grip he had against her back was a steadying reality.

"I'm sorry, Belle," he choked into her shoulder, a genuine apology.

"I love you, Rumple."

Her throat was swollen, but it was the only thing she could think to say. The only thing that might help and at the moment she couldn't bring herself to care if it was the right time or the right place to say such a thing. They had to figure out a way to live with whatever was coming their way. They may as well start by living with each other.

She allowed herself to be lost in his touch. In giving and getting comfort, she thought of-

She jumped and sniffled at the sound of an unfamiliar noise behind her, something in the cave. It wasn't a cave sound; it wasn't the dripping water or fallings stones she'd been listening to all this time. It was the noise of something living, but not an animal. It sounded like...

No. It wasn't possible.

Rumple's grip on her loosened as she turned around to locate the being that had made the sound. At the other end of the cavern, there was a small basket, smaller than what she'd used for laundry. Something was moving inside of it, squirming, making small gurgles just like Little Neal and Robin.

"Belle!" Rumple breathed lightly. Beside her his hand was open. And she couldn't understand the significance of an empty hand until she looked at the bundle at the other end of the cavern and remembered the lump of black that had once been their son's heart. It was gone. Two and two equaled four, she'd learned that long ago, but no matter how it was adding up in her mind right now she couldn't fathom how any of it was possible. It couldn't be. And yet, something in her knew it was.

She felt her jaw drop open. Her heart felt drawn to the tiny basket in a way she'd only ever felt once before. She took a step forward but nearly fell to the ground as her leg failed her. In her eagerness to move forward she felt no pain, but was vastly aware of its presence as Rumple's grasp tightened around her, taking on her weight as they both moved forward toward the object she kept expecting would disappear at any second.

It didn't.

And when she gazed down at the figure in the basket her head felt light, and all the world spun around him, a lone focal point in their world because she knew that face. She'd memorized every bit of it laying on a bed at the convent weeks ago! He was just as he'd been then, tiny as a newborn, not an inch grown! It was as if time had somehow turned back. And she couldn't understand how, but for once in her life, she didn't care.

She let out a choked cry as Rumple bent down to help her to the ground.

"Is that…"

"It's Gideon!" she cried pulling him from the basket and into her arms.

Standing was difficult, she was missing a leg, but with Rumple's help, she managed. The second the bulk of her baby was back in her arms, the moment his weight was against her once more a different weight, one that had pressed and ground against her soul, one that had been there since she'd given him to the Blue Fairy was lifted. She cried as she examined him, beholding the most beautiful sight that she'd never expected to see again. Their son.

When her leg failed, she practically fell into her husband. He held her steady, hands on either side of her to keep her on her feet as she held him between the two of them and looked him over. Not a scratch. Eyes still closed. These even appeared to be the clothes that she'd sent him off in! He could have been born thirty minutes ago instead of two weeks ago!

Emotions too strong to identify overwhelmed her and she stopped checking so that she could place a kiss of welcome next to the one of farewell she'd left weeks ago.

"A fresh start," she heard Rumple whisper as she gazed down at her baby. "A happy ending."

"No!" she refuted, looking up at her husband who was still staring down at his newborn son. Their first meeting. "A happy beginning."

She cried, blubbered like a baby. He let his head fall into her own and his arms held her closer and tighter to keep her on her feet as she cradled their sleeping son between the two of them. Her family was safe and hole. She didn't care how the miracle had happened, only marveled that for once in her life, a wish had come true.

* * *

 **Well, welcome to the end. I really hope that you enjoyed this story! The next story in the Moments series is Moments Grown and you can find it by simply heading over to my profile. It covers everything that happened in Storybrooke in the five weeks between when Belle and Rumple get Gideon back and the family dinner at Granny's Diner.**

 **Of course, if you liked what you read please review! I love getting those wonderful little gems in my inbox and communicating with the people reading on a personal level. And if you want to read more, please check out any of the other fictions in the Moments Series. For more information on the Moments Series, upcoming fictions, posting and publishing dates, or a reading order, check out my profile for more details. Peace and Happy Reading!**


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